


AVP: Until Dawn

by hunter139



Series: hunter 139's multiverse of stories [5]
Category: Aliens vs Predators Series - Various Authors, Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Badass, Blood and Gore, Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Hunters & Hunting, Multi, Multiverse, So is the Predator, The Stranger is a badass, Violence, Wendigo, Weyland-Yutani
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:14:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23145262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter139/pseuds/hunter139
Summary: It's been a year since Hannah and Beth had disappeared, and on the anniversary of their disappearance, their friends return to the mountain where they had vanished. Little do they realize the danger they face, not only from the beings that live on the mountain, but also from the two deadliest species in the galaxy.
Relationships: Ashley Brown/Chris Hartley, Emily Davis/Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Mike Munroe/Jessica Riley
Series: hunter 139's multiverse of stories [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1467655
Kudos: 9





	1. Prologue

Prologue

It had been nearly a year since the disappearance of Hannah and Beth Washington on Blackwood Mountain. Search and Rescue teams had scoured the area, but they could find no evidence of foul play.

Slowly, the friends of the two teens had attempted to put their lives back together, and Josh, the brother of the Washington twins, had invited his friends back up to the lodge for the anniversary of the death of his sisters.

For various reasons, they all agreed, unaware of Josh's plans for when they got there. However, the culprits who had caused the death were still lurking on the mountain, waiting for the oppurtunity to strike yet again. But unknown to everyone, the mountain was going to get some new visitors.

Visitors who were not of this Earth.

* * *

"Are we ready?"

"Everything's prepared. We release the specimens now, and while they set up shop, so do we."

"What about the locals? I doubt they're going to like this."

"This is an isolated location, yet it has enough pre-built infrastructure to support the specimens. Human contact will be minimal."

"It better be. I'd rather not become food for those things. Still though, wouldn't it be safer to find somewhere even more isolated?"

"The experiment calls for variables. We won't learn much if we dump them in the Arctic circle and they decide to go into hibernation."

"Fair enough, but why even come all the way out here? Surely, there are locations closer to home that fit all the requirements."

"Does it matter? They told us to conduct it out here, and that's what we'll do. We get scientific data, and you get your pay."

"Alright, I get the point. By the way, how far are we from the initial drop?"

"Two minutes. Be ready to release them."

"Understood."

* * *

The Wendigos had been starving. Ever since last year, the only humans who had been on this mountain were their captor, and the young man who had been coming and going for the past month. It was so frustrating to be so close to food, and yet unable to reach it.

A low rumbling noise drew their attention, and several Wendigos rushed towards the source. However, one stayed behind, looking over the head of its first victim. It hadn't been that long since the spirit within had claimed a new body, a little less than a year ago, in fact.

And still, she missed them all. Her friends, her family. That's why she kept the head. It was nice to have some company.

Her musings were shattered by the shrieks of her fellow Wendigos, resonating through the mines. These sounded different than normal, almost... terrified. Similar in tone and pitch to when their opponent used his fire.

However, more noise filtered through the crescendo: It sounded like a cross between hissing and screeching. The Wendigo stiffened as the death scream of one of its brethren filtered through the still silence, followed by the howling of its released spirit.

The Wendigos were no longer the most dangerous predators on the mountain.

* * *

"What the- What are those things?"

"Unit 782 encountered them as he attempted to set up the cameras to monitor the process. It seems we have an unexpected variable here."

"Well, these things may not be a match for the specimens, but we're going to be running on limited feeds."

"What's the status of the cameras Unit 782 was supposed to set up?"

"782 is in several pieces and his remains have been recovered. We're running on limited supplies as is, we can't afford to lose any more in attempting to install cameras during a brawl between two hostile species of these animals."

"I guess we lose some entertainment value there... what do we have, exactly?"

"Mainly the bio-readings from the specimens. We can send some forces to keep an eye on events, but they'll have to stay at range for their protection."

"Do it. The circumstances may have changed, but we need to get something out of this."

"I just hope these things are the only surprise we get."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

One week later

In orbit over planet Earth, space was quiet and still. That stillness was shattered when a tear in the fabric of reality opened. A small single-man ship shot out through the hole in spacetime and entered the atmosphere at high speeds, so quickly that it would easily be mistaken for a meteor.

In the area of Blackwood Mountain in Alberta, a few observers did just that, allowing the ship to go unnoticed as it slowed to a sudden stop and landed in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

The front of the silver fighter opened in layers, revealing the occupant. The Yautja hunter leapt from the vessel as his ship vanished, the cloaking device keeping it hidden from prying eyes. The Predator activated his Wrist computer, which displayed a hologram of the nearby mountain, and several markers on top of it.

After looking over the hologram, the Predator took off in a dead sprint through the wilderness, reaching the treeline just before the edge of the road. Activating his cloaking device, O'rika disappeared just as a bus pulled up to an old gate with the words 'Blackwood Pines' and a blonde teenage female emerged and entered towards the cable car.

O'rika frowned (or at least as close as his face could get to it) at this; he had hoped that the human presence would be minimal on this mission. Unfortunately, it seemed this girl had plans at the mountain.

Activating the infrared vision in his mask, O'rika found that she was not the only human heading to the cable car station; an old man with a flamethrower and holding a machete was watching on the other side of street, completely unnoticed by the young woman.

* * *

Sam sighed as she walked down the path to memory lane, both figuratively and literally. It felt weird being here again, especially after last year. After what happened to Hannah and Beth, it seemed wrong to be here without them.

Still, Josh was right. They all needed to heal from this tragedy, and there was no better way to do that then doing their usual vacation together. Besides, it would be good to see everyone again-

Sam's train of thought was interrupted as she felt that someone was watching her. Looking around though, she couldn't see anyone.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

She was met with silence. Nothing but the rustling of the trees in the wind, and a strange clicking noise. Sam shrugged inwardly. It was probably a bird or something. Brushing it off, she resumed her hike to the cable car.

* * *

The Predator watched from the trees as the female arrived at the cable car station and met up with another boy, who then started using a nearby shooting range. Listening to their conversation, the news wasn't exactly encouraging to him.

More humans were already up on the mountain, and by the looks of it, they were teenagers. O'rika growled in annoyance. Their presence would only complicate the mission and waste his time.

And then there was the other man. Even with his clearly advanced age for a human, he carried himself with the posture and attitude of a hunter, and was constantly aware of his surroundings. He was stalking the outer edges of the station, just out of sight of the two teenagers, and looking around, as if to make sure no threats were nearby.

He was someone who had unquestionably seen combat, and if he had been on the mountain in the last week when the Serpents had been dropped, then he was clearly someone worthy of respect in the eyes of the Predator.

Eventually, the two teens left on a cable car. Shortly after, the old man followed on a different car. O'rika stood on a tree, watching the cable cars make their way up the mountain. The frigid breeze whipped through the air, wind chill affecting him even with the wire mesh heating at full.

His race had always hated the cold, but it wouldn't stop them from doing what had to be done. O'rika prepared to follow the group, nonetheless on edge. The man equipped with a flamethrower had an effective weapon against the serpents, but the Predator's instinct told him that it wasn't for the Xenomorphs.

The Yautja leapt towards the last cable car and landed on top of it as it ascended, ready to ascend to the jaws of death. From his vantage point, he noticed faint heat signatures near the side of the mountain, on a cliff far from the top cable car station.

Zooming in with his bio-mask, the Yautja was surprised to see a strange humanoid being crawling on its four limbs and generally acting like a wild animal. 'Yet another complication.' O'rika thought.

He looked at the man ahead of him, the one with the weapons. Was that what he was armed for? Those strange humanoid beings? Though O'rika was troubled at yet another problem for this mission, he couldn't deny the rush of adrenaline at the thought of a new challenge and new prey.

* * *

The stranger stood in the cable car, watching as the one ahead of his climbed up the side of the mountain. The damn Washingtons and their Blackwood lodge. Those kids shouldn't have come back, not after what happened last year.

The Washington twins, he had tried to help them, but he couldn't save them. So he had avenged their deaths by killing the Makkapitew. It wasn't the most pragmatic solution, but as long as no one else came up, he could keep the situation contained. But now those teenagers had come back and threatened to undo the work his family had been doing for generations.

It didn't help that the mountain had gotten even more dangerous. In the last week, he had noticed a collection of lights moving through the sky, before briefly landing near the summit of the mountain, like some kind of helicopter. He had headed up to the landing site, expecting foolish heli-skiers, but instead had found twelve sets of unknown tracks leading down into the mountain.

That's when the Wendigo patterns started changing. The changes were subtle at first, and would've gone unnoticed had he not spent years on the mountain. Wendigos recieving new wounds, something that would've been difficult with such thick skin. Their cries in deeper portions of the mountains, turning from a call of challenge to shrieks of terror. He had even found the corpse of one that had been brutally torn apart, an event that should've been impossible.

Then there were the newcomers. Unnatural growls combined with vocalizations that sounded like a cross between screeching and hissing. The victorious screeching of triumph over the Wendigos. There was a new threat on the mountain.

And it wasn't human.

He had caught a glimpse of one through the trees, far in the forest. A massive jet black creature resembling a rather unnatural ant. Though their skin made them stand out in the white snow of the peaks, it didn't seem to mind. It had known the stranger had seen it. The creature stared right at him with its eyeless face, which could be made out even at this distance. There was no effort to hide its presence, yet no attempt to attack.

It knew that they were on the top of the food chain. And the creatures reveled in that knowledge. The stranger was thrown from his musings when he saw the car behind him had started rocking slightly, as if someone else was in it.

The stranger frowned. He had been the last one at the station below, and even from this distance, he could see that the cable car was empty. So what was causing the disturbance? He squinted as he noticed some sort of mirage-like image on top of the car.

The wind picked up, blowing snow towards the bottom of the mountain, and soon the stranger could see that the mirage had a man-shaped silhouette. Then a pair of yellow glowing eyes briefly flashed, looking right at him.

If he was one of those kids, he'd probably have been pissing himself right now, but the stranger was curious to see what was coming up with them. He felt the silhouette was no longer looking towards him, and was looking towards another cliff face.

Following its gaze, the stranger saw the unmistakeable form of a Wendigo climbing the side of the mountain. Clearly, they had noticed the arrival of the kids. The Stranger looked at the silhouette on the adjacent car, then back at the Wendigo.

He needed to hurry.

* * *

Near the top of the mountain, unnoticed by the current occupants, a lone figure stood. This being was clad in white and grey body armor, blending in to the snow around him. An unusual rifle was slung on his back and he was currently holding a pair of binoculars and looking down toward the Washington Lodge.

After a moment, the humanoid figure lowered his binoculars and put two fingers to the side of its helmet.

"Possible threats detected." A robotic voice emerged from the white armored figure. "Requesting permission to engage."

"Negative." A much more human male voice replied. "Pull back to base. We're going quiet."

"Acknowledged."

With that, the figure departed.

* * *

"We should scrub the experiment. Any more witnesses are just going to make things worse."

"The situation is still within acceptable guidelines. The presence of these children are a minor concern."

"Are you kidding? There weren't supposed to be any other humans here at all! That old hermit was one thing, but if any of them disappear, or worse, they leave to tell others about what they saw, the authorities will be all over the mountain!"

"Let them come. They won't find us."

"How you can be so sure?"

"The creatures our specimens encountered. They've clearly been infesting the mountain long before we arrived, and it's unlikely that they've gone unnoticed by the local law-enforcement for so long."

"... They've been covering them up."

"Precisely. Even if they survive the xenomorphs, the police will just assume it was the other creatures and sweep this under the rug."

"I hope you're right."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

O'rika stood on a tree some distance from the cabin, watching as the teenagers made their way inside. A group of defenseless humans clustered in a lodge made of wood and stone would be a prime target for the Serpents.

A few minutes later, a pair of them exited and left for the cable car station, while another couple disappeared into the wilderness. O'rika swore. This made both groups vulnerable to an attack from the xenomorphs.

Activating thermal vision, the Predator was surprised to find the old man with a flamethrower was shadowing the couple that was heading into the wilderness. That made his job easier. The Serpents had a fear of fire, and if the Yautja could see the man with the flamethrower, then the xenomorphs could too.

It would only be a temporary deterence, but it bought him some respite, as the couple heading to the cable car would be the only easy target for the Serpents right now.

That suspicion was confirmed by a low hissing coming from somewhere behind him. The Yautja turned, switching to EM vision in the process, and found a lone xenomorph hiding deep in the forest. 'Only one?' O'rika thought.

That was unusual. Usually, the Serpents would travel in numbers. To have only one in the area was rather strange. Regardless, the alien was clearly watching the kids, and if it got inside the lodge, it would slaughter them all with ease.

The Predator leapt from tree to tree, heading towards the Serpent. Halfway to it, the xenomorph noticed O'rika heading towards it, screeching before it turned and ran. Confused at the Serpent's apparent cowardice, the Yautja kept up the pursuit, while simultaneously wary that this may be a trap of some sort.

That fear was well founded when he felt something blindside him, knocking the Predator to the ground. Before O'rika could get his bearings, he felt a weight press down on him. Switching back to thermal vision, the Yautja saw that one of those humanoid beings was pinning him to the ground.

Snarling, O'rika kicked the creature off, and rose to his feet in time to see the creature get on its four limbs, shrieking at him, before it retreated with surprising speed. The Predator cocked his head, curious about why the creature had suddenly chosen to retreat.

Then he realized that the Serpent was nowhere in sight.

The alien leapt onto his back, intent on spearing its inner jaw through the back of his head. O'rika had anticipated that, and immediately grabbed the xenomorph before it could get a good grip, hurling the creature over his head.

He didn't emerge unscathed, as the Serpent's tail flailed through the air, the razor tip cut deeply into O'rika's leg, sending neon blood into the snow. Roaring, the Predator pulled out his smart disc and hurled it at the alien. The xenomorph saw the threat, and twisted to avoid it, but was unsuccessful and bisected.

It's yellow-green blood splattered onto a tree, hissing as it dissolved the bark. O'rika paid it no mind, nor did he care when the wood splintered and the tree collapsed. His attention was focused on the xenomorph carcass. He needed to ensure that the kids wouldn't find it.

Pulling out a small vial, O'rika poured the blue liquid over the two halves of the Serpent, which immediately dissolved into ash.

* * *

One minute ago.

Josh walked out to the yard, to make one last check on everything. The gang was here, and it would soon be time to put his plan into effect. Despite what Dr. Hill claimed, he knew that this little weekend would be good for everyone, and finally allow them to heal.

And Chris... Chris would be thanking him, for forcing him to admit his feelings to Ashley. Yeah, it would be therapeutic for everyone. ' _You're not well, Josh. This is wrong.'_

"Shut up!" He whispered to the voice. Realizing what he was doing, Josh dropped to a crouch, grasping his head while taking deep breaths. "You're not going crazy, you're fine. You're not going crazy, you're fine!"

Standing up, he looked at the forest around him, seeing and hearing exactly what he should. The snow covered trees blowing in the wind, owls flying in the sky, deer grazing, a jet black monster ant fighting a toy action figure with dreadlocks-

'Wait, what?!'

He could barely see them, since they were so far into the woods, but it looked like some sort of fight between... whatever the hell those things were. Josh thought he heard a low hissing, along with a loud growl, but it was impossible to tell for sure.

Hoping that it was his imagination, Josh closed his eyes and shook his head vigorously. When he looked back, the figures were gone. Letting out a sigh of relief, he returned to his work. There was still a lot to do.

* * *

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh? What, uh oh?!"

"Specimen 3 just flatlined. Wait, scratch that, its bio-signs have vanished completely."

"Damn it. Those creatures are getting bolder. And if they managed to kill a xenomorph, they're more determined than we thought."

"Well, it would've been a phyrric victory for them. And anyway, I'm not so sure one of those creatures was responsible for the death of 3."

"Then who? The old man? You know, I told you we should've eliminated-"

"No, I don't think it was him."

"Well, what else is capable of taking on a xenomorph and winning... Oh god, you don't think one of those things followed us here?"

"It's just a thought. In all likelihood, it was one of those creatures."

"And if it isn't?"

"... Pull everyone back. Leave no evidence that can be traced to our location."

"And I was actually starting to like this post."

* * *

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? You, afraid of the dark?" Mike teased, but Jessica wasn't joking.

"Mike, I'm serious. I think I heard something."

"I didn't hear anything." Mike replied. "Look, it was probably just the wind. I'm sure it was nothing." He reassured her.

Jess took a look around, but didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

"Maybe you're right."

"You need to relax, Jess." Mike responded. "Once we get to the cabin, we can relax and unwind."

"Well, get the power started, and we'll do more than unwind." She teased.

"Your wish is my command," He chuckled. "M'lady."

As the two of them restarted the generator, neither realized that they were being watched. The stranger had shadowed them ever since they left the Washington Lodge, for fear of them falling prey to the Wendigos.

As he kept his distance, his mind drifted back to the silhouette he had seen on the cable car. Whatever that was, it was clear that something else had business on the mountain. Possibly, with the infestation of black creatures.

Putting those thoughts aside, the old man kept his eyes open, and ears listening for any signs of the Wendigos... or any of the other creatures that now seemed to make their home on this mountain.

Right now, his current priority was tracking and containing one of the Wendigos who had recently escaped from his makeshift holding cells in the Sanitorium. One of the cell doors had broken, and the creature had managed to leave.

Eventually, the path of the teens took them to one of the side tunnels into the mountain. The Stranger watched the two teenagers enter the mine, though neither of them noticed him. Stumbling about like amateurs, alerting any life in the vicinity of their presence. He sighed inwardly.

All the years the Washingtons and their friends had come to the lodge, and those fools would've gotten themselves killed several times over if he hadn't been here. He could keep the Wendigos in line, but the new arrivals were something else entirely. The Stranger could only hope that he could keep the kids safe.

Meanwhile, Mike and Jess had found a cigar stump and a strange totem while looking in the tunnels. Near the totem, Mike could've sworn he heard something moving, but it was far too faint to know for sure.

Soon, they reached a slight clearing, with the faint echo of dripping liquid nearby. As they made their way through, one of the ceiling beams collapsed right in front of them, causing Jessica to jump back in fright.

"That was too close." Jessica muttered as she caught her breath. Mike pointed his flashlight at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I don't think this place is up to code." As if to punctuate that thought, a low hissing emerged from deeper in the mines.

"Let's just get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps." Jess whispered.

As Mike and Jess exited the mine, they never noticed something on the ceiling behind them shifting in the pitch black darkness. Nor did they realize that the steady dripping noise wasn't water, but rather drool.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Stranger had finally found the trail of the escaped Wendigo after it exited the mines and was closing in on it, when he heard its familiar shrieking. It was followed by hissing and screeching, which erupted in conflict.

Picking up the pace, he arrived at a clearing just in time to see the Wendigo get smashed into a tree by the tail of one of those black creatures. The Wendigo was sporting a recent cut, no doubt due to the tip of the creature's tail. Recovering quickly, the Wendigo let out a shriek and charged.

In short bursts, the Wendigo was much faster than its opponent and it knew it, ducking under another swipe from its tail and slashing at the monster's exposed chest. From this, the Stranger learned two things: The black creatures were not as durable as the Wendigos, but drawing their blood while in close proximity wasn't the best idea.

The Wendigo's claws pierced the creature's skin, causing it's blood to leak out. The cannibal's right hand dissolved, causing it to jump back, screaming in pain. Meanwhile, the black creature knew the damage its blood could do,

splattered more in the Wendigo's direction.

The acid landed on the Wendigo's upper right arm, causing the limb to fall off. Now helpless, the one-armed Wendigo was held against a tree by the black creature. The elongated head closed in on the Wendigo's face and snarled. The Stranger could only guess what it was doing, but the creature was obviously trying to kill it.

Which unfortunately, the Stranger could not allow.

Rushing forward, the stranger sent a burst of fire in the direction of the two creatures, causing them both to shriek in fright. The black creature leapt back, apparently they were as afraid of fire as the Wendigos.

A few more blasts of flame caused the creature to retreat. As soon as it did, the Stranger turned just in time to see that the Wendigo had recovered. Roaring, it leapt at him, but the cannibal was unused to having only one arm. With its unbalanced equilibrium, the Wendigo fell short, crashing into the ground.

The Stranger took advantage of that, and blasted more fire at it, driving the creature back. As he did, he thought back to what the recent battle had taught him about the new denziens of the mountain.

They were strong, but judging from the damage that one took, they weren't bulletproof. They did, however, have some sort of highly corrosive substance as blood, which meant stabbing them was out of the question. Just what were these creatures?

The Wendigo's shrieking shook the Stranger out of his musings and he doubled his efforts as he corraled the creature. It was time to return this one to the Sanitorium. He already had a chain prepared for this one.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Having disposed off the Serpent remains, O'rika was now sitting on a branch on top of the tree, looking over the cut on his leg. Thankfully, the wound wasn't too serious, but he needed to treat it before he went any further.

As he tended to the wound using his medi-kit, he thought over how his progress at been so far. 'So, I've only found one Serpent.' He applied a liquid to prevent infection. 'Got into a fight with another creature that lives here,' He winced as the healing salve seeped into the cut. 'yet I've only killed one xenomorph AND got wounded in the process.'

He pulled the stapler from the kit.

'All in all,' O'rika placed the device over the cut. 'not the most auspicious start.'

He pressed the activation button.

* * *

" ** _RARGH!_** "

"What the hell was that?" Emily asked, as she and Matt looked around.

This was really messed up. They were already on edge from that earlier female scream. The strangely quiet inhuman roar of pain, followed by low moaning did not do much to soothe their anxiety.

"I don't know." Matt sighed. "We should head back to the lodge."

"Yeah, right." Emily agreed. "Let's head back."

As they came back to the lodge, they heard a lot of noise emanating in the direction of the shed, and the two of them ran towards it.

* * *

" ** _RARGH!_** "

"What the-?"

"Jesus Christ! Mike, what the fuck was that?!"

"Probably just a bear or something." He replied, though he didn't sound convinced. "C'mon, let's just get to the cabin."

Jessica nodded, still unsure herself. After her little joke at Mike's expense, they had made it to a telescope overlooking the cabin. When she had used it, though, she could've sworn she saw someone already there.

Mike had looked through it as well, but he didn't see anything. Regardless, that was something that had worried her, and the inhuman roar followed by the low moaning had put her on edge.

Mike didn't show it, but he was concerned as well. Something about the mountain felt off, whether it was due to the mystery of what happened to Hannah and Beth, or the odd animal noises in the background. Still, he put on a brave face for Jessica's sake, and the two of them kept moving along the path.

A short while later, the two of them came across a dying deer. Chunks of it had been ripped out, and blood had soaked its fur. The deer's moans indicated that it was in serious pain.

"Oh my god." Jess whispered, appalled at the creature's suffering. Mike knelt down near the creature and stroked its head.

"Hey there." He said, comforting it. "Shh, shh. It'll be over soon."

The deer's moans became quieter, and its breathing became more relaxed, when suddenly, something dragged the wounded animal away, emitting a loud roar in the process.

"Oh, crap. RUN!"

"Jesus Christ!"

The two of them did just that, rushing to the cabin as fast as possible, all while being chased by... something. Eventually, they made it to the cabin, though Jess lost her phone in the process. Quickly shutting the door as soon as they were inside, the two lovers paused to catch their breath.

"Oh wow, that was scary." Jess said, as soon as she had calmed. "What do you think that was?"

"It was a bear." Mike replied. "Had to be."

"Are you sure we're safe in here?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" Mike asked.

"I mean, how do we know the bear won't get us?" Mike chuckled.

"Well, for starters, I'm pretty sure bears don't know how to open cabin doors."

"I've seen the open car doors." Jessica's reply caused Mike to do a double take.

"What? Where did you see that?"

"On the internet."

"Ah. Well, this isn't the internet, Jess. This is real life. And I promise you; no bear or anything else, is going to open that cabin door."

* * *

Several minutes earlier.

Having healed his wound, O'rika took to the trees once again. Trying a different approach, O'rika was now searching for evidence of xenomorph movement, in order to accurately gauge their numbers.

He had made assumptions during that first fight; specifically, when the Serpent was baiting him, the Predator had assumed that the ambush would come from another xenomorph, not one of the other creatures.

Judging by that detail, it seemed that the Serpents were in conflict with these creatures, and were outnumbered. Of course, since the humanoid monster had retreated, it was also clear that they were afraid of the Serpents. Regardless, he needed to know the rough numbers of the xenomorphs on the mountain, so he could prepare accordingly.

Eventually, O'rika found the evidence he needed. Near the summit of the mountain, he found indications of tracks leading down into the mountain. It had been a week ago, and would be untraceable by the technology of these humans, but O'rika's bio-mask was able to pick up trace indications of their movement.

The patterns were sporadic and he couldn't track them further into the mountain, but from what the Yautja could tell, there were no more than a dozen xenomorphs on the mountain. 'Or rather, no more than eleven.' He thought.

Now having a rough idea of what he was up against, the Predator made his way back to the forest, when something else caught his attention. In the shadow of a tree, a lone totem was lying on the ground.

Curious, O'rika leapt to the ground and picked the icon up, looking over the wooden artifact.

* * *

_Emily was making her way through the mines when she heard a noise. Picking up a nearby piece of wood, Emily had her back against the wall at the corner intersection and waited. When her opponent was close enough, she jumped around the corner and swung the makeshift weapon with all her might..._

_... which promptly broke on contact with the Predator, who barely felt a thing._

_O'rika's hand shot forward on reflex, grabbing the young woman by the throat and lifting her off the ground. Ignoring the girl's struggling, the Yautja inspected her, surprised that someone so young had survived in the monster-infested mines._

_A familiar hissing from behind drew his attention, releasing the girl as he spun around. Unsheathing his wrist blades, the Predator roared in anticipation, while the girl took off running._

* * *

Once he was finished, the Predator carefully replaced the totem, this time in an upright position, before returning to the treetops.

...

Eventually, O'rika came across what appeared to be a site of conflict between a xenomorph and one of the other inhabitants of the mountain. One which seemed to have happened recently, given the melted holes in the ground.

O'rika looked over the battle site. It appeared that one of these creatures had gotten in a fight with a xenomorph. Surprisingly, the serpent seemed to have been wounded during the duel, though judging from the remains of a partially disintegrated arm, its opponent hadn't fared much better.

Even more amazingly, the tracks indicated a human had also been here at the same time, and judging by the nearby scorch marks, had used a flamethrower to frighten the alien away and herd the creature elsewhere.

O'rika let out his kind's version of a low whistle in admiration. His respect for the old human had jumped several levels, considering few people could take on two dangerous predators and corral them like cattle.

Still, why hadn't the hermit killed the creature it had been hunting? Given how bloodthirsty they were, it was obvious they were a clear threat to any trespassers on the mountain. So why spare it? And why go through the effort to contain-

" _HELP! OH GOD! MIKE!"_

_"JESS?! JESSICA!"_

O'rika whipped his head towards the screaming, activating the infrared vision and spotting something dragging a human female away. She was followed by a human male armed with a hunting rifle, and by the look of things, both humans were in their undergarments.

Through the din, he could make out animalistic shrieks in between the screaming of the two humans. Though, it clearly was one of the other creatures, the panicked cries of the humans would inevitably draw the Serpents to them.

The Yautja rushed towards the screaming at a cautious pace, unlike the male human. Though O'rika was impressed at how quickly the male was following his mate, he couldn't help but internally berate the boy's foolishness.

Eventually, the young man reached a cluster of buildings, just in time to witness the girl get dragged through the door to the main building. O'rika watched him follow, but hung back when he heard sounds near an adjacent structure.

Switching to EM vision, the Predator saw a xenomorph emerge from a small tunnel, one that the Serpents had obviously created. The alien wasn't paying attention to its surroundings; instead it was looking at the door the humans just entered, salivating intently.

Suddenly, the creature had a strange feeling, as if something was behind it. Spinning around, the xenomorph noticed the trio of targeting lasers aimed at it, and had just enough time to screech in anger before a plasma bolt blew a hole through its chest.

The Predator leapt to the ground and approached the decaying body, watching as the blood poured onto the ground. It wouldn't do to leave a Serpent corpse out in the open for anyone to find, especially if those kids came back.

Hissing from behind drew his attention, and O'rika turned to see another xenomorph emerging from their little hidden aperture in the ground. Reactivating his plasma caster, O'rika targeted the alien, but the creature moved to avoid the plasma bolts before they could get a lock.

Growling in anger, the Serpent charged the Yautja, juking to avoid another plasma bolt, which struck near the alien tunnel, burying the entrance. Paying no mind, the xenomorph lunged at the Predator, who sidestepped and let the creature fly past, grabbing its tail in the process.

With a significant hold on the xenomorph, O'rika slammed it into the ground in front of him, stunning the creature long enough for a plasma bolt to finish it off. After checking to make sure nothing else was in sight, O'rika gripped the carcass of the xenomorph and threw it on top of the other body.

Pulling out a vial, the Yautja poured the contents over the bodies. As they dissolved, the Predator had only one thought in his mind:

'3 down, nine to go.'

* * *

"Shit, we just lost two more."

"... That's not good."

"You think?! One dead xenomorph is one thing, but three in one hour doesn't happen, not unless-"

"Without any way to be certain, we can't just assume it was one of them. And if it was, we must remain calm and think of a plan."

"Remain calm?! What, do you think one of those things _won't_ find us?! They aren't exactly known for giving up... or for their 'merciful' nature!"

"What do you suggest, then? Evacuate? That's not exactly a subtle proposition, and even if we _could_ signal for evac, if it doesn't know we're here, calling for extraction WILL change that."

"So what? We just stay here and pray it doesn't find us?!"

"As far as any Hunter would know, we just dumped the xenomorphs here and left. It would have little reason to believe that we're even here. And that's still _assuming_ that it IS a Predator. For all we know, it was something else entirely."

"You know that if you're wrong, we're so fucked."

"We don't have any other choice."

* * *

Mike ran down the stairs of the old building, desperate to catch up to Jess and her kidnapper. As he entered the basement, he thought he heard some sort of scuffle going on outside the building, but he didn't care. All that mattered was finding Jessica.

Entering the mining tunnels, Mike saw her lying on an elevator platform in the middle of the old mine shaft. He rushed towards her, yelling her name and quickly reached her location. Setting the rifle down, his heart sank as he saw what had happened.

Her entire body was covered in cuts and scrapes from being dragged along the mountain, and her face was bloodied and bruised from all the abuse. Her skin was unnaturally pale, and she didn't even look like she was still breathing.

"Oh god, Jess."

His spirits soared when she started moving, reaching her arm towards him.

"Jess!" He almost shouted in relief and joy.

"Help... me." She groaned, breaking his heart at the amount of pain she was in.

He leaned forward to grab her, to take her to safety, to get her away from this horrifying nightmare... when the elevator suddenly collapsed, taking her with it. Her scream of terror was immediately echoed by his horrified yell.

"JESSICA!"

For a moment he stood there, heedless of the falling metal, unable to wrap his head around Jessica's death. A strange noise drew his attention upwards. Picking the rifle up, Mike aimed towards the top of the elevator shaft, where a human shaped head emerged and looked down at him.

It was obviously the one who had caused the elevator to collapse, causing Michael to aim at his head. 'For Jess.' He thought as he pulled the trigger. A shot rang out, and the figure had disappeared, though whether it was because he had missed or the person had died was unclear to Mike.

Climbing up the outside of the elevator shaft, Mike found that he could go no further, and leapt off into another tunnel, where he saw a man walking away from him. Figuring that it was Jessica's killer, Mike took aim, only for the man to round a corner.

"Shit." He swore, quietly running after the man until he had a clear shot.

Unslinging the rifle, Mike took aim at the man's back. It was a perfect shot, a clear line of sight, and the man had no idea that Mike was there. He would pay for what he did to Jess. Taking a deep breath to steady his aim, Mike pulled the trigger...

... and nothing happened.

"Shit." He swore again. Looking over the rifle, he realized that it was faulty from disuse.

"Jammed up piece of shit." He muttered, tossing the rifle aside before following the man. He rounded the corner just in time to see the man jump down to another tunnel, while a metal shutter closed behind him.

"Christ, gotta make it!"

He sprinted down the hall, and managed to slide under the shutter just before it closed. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he noticed a nearby lantern and lit it up, giving him a fresh source of light to help navigate. Finding the exit to the tunnel, Mike made it out of the mines, where the wind and snow was much higher.

Shielding himself for a moment, he waited until the snow died down, before getting a good glimpse of an old abandoned building.

"What the hell is that place?" Mike muttered, before realizing that the man he was chasing was heading towards it. That was all he needed to know, as he followed the path from a distance.

If Mike hadn't been in such a hurry to catch the Stranger, he may have heard the metal shutter in the mine opening again, or seen the mirage-like silhouette lifting the heavy door with one hand before letting it fall again.

He may have heard the distinct clicking noise over the wind if he had been closer to the mine entrance. And if he had bothered to look behind him, he may have noticed the silhouette standing outside the tunnel that he had just left.

And he almost certainly would have seen a pair of glowing yellow eyes flash in the winter air as the mirage started following him.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mike was crouched on a low rise, giving him a decent view over the wall surrounding the abandoned Sanitorium. Within the courtyard, the man he had been following seemed to be checking the outside of the building, and to make matters worse, he was accompanied by two wolves.

"Oh, that's not good." Mike muttered, praying that they couldn't smell him. "Really not good."

Fortunately, the man seemed preoccupied with his checks, and soon he entered the building with the two dogs in tow. Mike waited until the door had closed before climbing over the wall, to avoid attracting any attention.

As he crossed through the courtyard, a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision, and a low clicking sound drew his attention to the roof of the Sanitorium, where a mirage-like silhouette was standing.

"What the-?"

Mike stared at the mirage, unsure as to what he was looking at. It almost looked like it was shaped like a man, but that was extremely difficult to make out. Mike blinked rapidly and shook his head. When he looked back, the mirage was gone.

Dismissing it as his imagination, while also doing his best to ignore the now increased sense of unease, Mike focused on the task at hand, and made his way to the entrance of the Sanitorium.

* * *

O'rika made his way over the roof of the building, looking for a quiet way to enter the dilapidated structure. With the age of the building, it wasn't hard to find a hole in the ceiling, and he entered, quietly landing on the floor.

Low growling from the canines emerged from within the building, but they clearly didn't know that the Yautja was inside. Thankful for that, O'rika made his way towards the abandoned offices.

The reason he had come here was simple: information. The Predator was seriously lacking in intel on the mountain's geography, and he needed to know more. During the last fight with the Serpents, a stray plasma bolt had collapsed one of the tunnels they had created.

Regardless, he had figured that they were bound to make more, but even the Serpents couldn't hollow a sizeable tunnel system into the mountain in a week, especially if they were in conflict with those other creatures.

That meant there were already sizeable caverns underground, but when he followed the boy to check the caverns himself, he realized that the humans had been mining here. The mines were more extensive than he thought, but he was unsure as to the scale.

Lacking the necessary mapping equipment, the Yautja's only option was to find a local source, which coincidentally, was nearby. Following the human youth as he tailed the old hermit, O'rika had clearly found a location that could provide the answers he needed.

Looking over some of old documents, O'rika was surprised to find references to a mine collapse in 1952. Dozens of workers had been trapped for months, until slowly they ran out of food and resorted to cannibalism until only a dozen remained.

The fact that the miners had resorted to eating each other was disgusting to the Predator, but what grabbed his attention was what had happened to them when they were recovered by rescue teams.

According to the old records, the survivors had suffered from strange physical changes, boosting their strength and speed, yet turning them into rabid monsters. For a time, they were held in this very building, where all sorts of tests were done on them, but the creatures escaped and slaughtered the staff, resulting in the facility being shut down.

'So, the usual story.' O'rika thought, having seen this type of scenario happen before.

Still, the descriptions of these creatures matched the characteristics of the monsters who had come into conflict with the Serpents and himself. And it would explain why they were so humanoid: they were transformed humans.

O'rika's musings were interrupted as he realized that he had entered a small makeshift bedroom. Disengaging his cloak, O'rika looked around the room and saw a flamethrower leaning against the wall, a strange symbol painted carved into the wall and a small book on a desk.

With a start, the Predator realized he was in one of the old man's camps. Taking a look at the book on the table, O'rika opened it and found it was a journal of sorts, and a guide to what those creatures were and how to kill them.

The Wendigos, as he called them, were cannibalistic monsters who mutated when Native spirits entered their body after any human on the mountain resorted to cannibalism. Any human would have probably dismissed these as insane ramblings, but the Predator knew better than to do that.

Reading on, he learned that the Wendigos were bullet and knife proof, but were vulnerable to fire. Of course, it was unlikely they could stand up to Yautja weaponry, and if the Serpents had them terrified, then the Wendigos were clearly not immune to xenomorph claws.

But what caught the Yautja's attention was the fact that the Wendigos were nocturnal and preferred to stay underground during the day, a trait they shared with the Serpents. And if the tunnels were where they both made their homes... well, the xenomorphs were often very territorial.

It made sense: the mines were expansive enough for the Serpents to have hidden their nest there, but considering what the documents said about those other creatures, those 'Wendigos,' it was obvious that it was also their habitat, explaining why they had been drawn into conflict with the xenomorphs.

Putting the journal down, the Yautja made his way to another office. As useful as all that was, O'rika still hadn't found what he needed. As he was about to leave through an open window, and just navigate the tunnels himself, he noticed a piece of paper on a nearby desk.

Carefully inspecting it, the Predator was pleased to find that it was a map of the mines themselves. It wasn't a perfect drawing, and it had been created during the 50s if the paper's age was any indication, but it was better than nothing.

Recording the map with his bio-mask, O'rika uploaded the results to his Wrist Gauntlet. Keying a few buttons, the Yautja activated the Sat-com, creating a hologram of the mountain with the approximate locations of the tunnels overlayed within.

Now he just needed to head back through the tunnels and find the Serpent hive. The sound of footsteps jolted O'rika out of his thoughts, as he reengaged his cloaking device before quietly exiting out the window.

* * *

The Stranger walked through the halls of the Sanitorium, the building that served partially as his home, and his prison for the Wendigos. He knew this place and the mines like the back of his hand, so he knew the best location to rest during the day.

After ensuring that his recently captured Wendigo couldn't escape from the cell it had been chained to, the Stranger went back to his makeshift campsite to grab his things, before he went back into the mines.

When he got to his room however, he noticed that his journal had been moved. Narrowing his eyes, the old man looked around the room, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, someone had been here recently, and it wasn't the boy currently wandering through the old parts of the building.

Grabbing his flamethrower (after checking it for possible sabotage), the Stranger cautiously searched through the halls and offices, wary of what might be here. For all he knew, one of the black creatures could've been in here, or the invisible being from earlier.

After a careful search, the old man had found nothing else out of the ordinary. So whoever had been in his room must've already left the Sanitorium. Shaking out of his musings, he left to grab the rest of his supplies and journal.

Before he could get to the chapel and use the tunnel there, he was interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion.

"Oh, what now?"

Running towards the source of the disturbance, the Stranger feared that whatever happened may have released the Wendigos. But to his relief, he found that the blast had been nowhere near the cells, and had likely been caused by the foolish boy shooting out the lock to the gate.

Seeing a pair of footprints, the Stranger saw that the young man had exited the Sanitorium, and was presumably on his way back to the lodge. Leaving him be, the Stranger put the remaining fires out before returning to the chapel and using the tunnel to enter the mine.

Donning his goggles and balaclava, the man readied his flamethrower.

It was time to go to work.

* * *

Matt and Emily left the outskirts of the Washington lodge, heading for a nearby fire tower. Having investigated the shed, they had found a hysterical Chris and Ashley, who reported that some psycho killed Josh.

When they heard that, Emily and Matt went to the cable car station to get help, while Chris and Ashley headed back into the lodge in order to find Sam. But no sooner had they left the yard when Matt found that the gate had locked up behind them.

Having no luck, the two teens had made their way to the cable car, but found that the station had been trashed by the Psycho, and to make matters worse, the cable car required a key to activate. No key, no way off the mountain.

Fortunately, a nearby painting had shown that there was an old fire tower further up the mountain, and would likely have a radio. As they made their way up, Emily couldn't help but wonder whether or not Josh was actually dead, and whether she and Matt should've seen what happened for themselves.

Now, she didn't doubt that something had happened in the shed, but knowing Chris and Ashley, it was possible that they didn't take the time to check what had really happened. Something about this whole scenario felt wrong in a way she couldn't describe.

"-mily? Emily, are you alright?"

"Huh, what?"

"You ok?" Matt asked, his eyes filled with concern. "You spaced out on me for a sec."

"Uh, yeah. I-I'm fine. Let's just get to the fire tower and call for help." She said, shaking off her concerns.

The two teens made their way towards the fire tower, but found their path blocked by a fallen tree. It was a trivial matter to go over it, but that wasn't the point. Just from a glimpse, it was clear that the tree had fallen within the last hour, as the snow had yet to build up on the trunk.

Emily looked over the fallen tree, curious as to what caused it to topple. Looking at the stump, she noticed an oddity: it seemed that something had melted through the tree, rather than being cut down with an axe or chainsaw.

"Hey Em, take a look at this."

Matt had stumbled onto something else, a short distance away. A splatter of some sort of glowing green liquid.

"What the fuck is that stuff?" Emily whispered. Matt touched his finger to the substance and examined it, to Emily's disgust.

"Don't touch it! For all we know, it's toxic... or something."

Matt was quiet, and generally seemed mystified by what he was looking at.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was someone's blood."

"Matt, that's ridiculous. Let's just get to the fire tower."

"Alright."

Matt wiped his fingers in the snow, removing the mysterious liquid from his hand and left to follow his girlfriend. Having found a fire axe on the ranger path, Matt at least felt a bit more secure against any potential threats. Soon, they came across a dilapidated wooden shed near a cliff, where something glinting in the moonlight caught his attention.

Pulling back the floor board, Matt found an old iPhone that was covered in a layer of ice and frost, that had clearly been out here for a while. A quick look revealed that it was familiar.

"Woah, this is Beth's phone." Emily said, pointing at the phone in his hand.

"I thought the police, like swept this whole place."

"Well, apparently they missed this." Emily muttered.

Putting the phone in his back pocket, Matt and Em followed the path to find that it led to a cliff with a sheer drop.

"Watch your step around here Em." He said.

"Yes, Matt. Given the choice, I'd prefer not to spend my evening plummeting to my death off a snowy cliff top."

The two of them turned away and decided to head back, when a long and loud shrieking noise pierced the air. Strangely, a screeching sound also seemed to erupt from the bottom of the cliff behind them.

"What was that?!" Emily fearfully asked.

"I don't know." Matt muttered, as another, closer sound appeared from figures coming out of the trees.

Jesus! Shit!" Emily yelled as a pack of deer emerged from the forest and approached the two teens.

Backing away, the two of them had realized that the pack of deer had them cornered at the cliff's edge. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

* * *

Having found an opening in the mountain, O'rika leapt through, landing in the mines with a loud thump. Deactivating his cloaking device, the Yautja took a good look at his surroundings. Finding human vision to be rather ineffective in the dark tunnels, O'rika switched to EM, which would help him track the Serpents.

Cautiously making his way through the tunnels, O'rika kept up the search for the Serpent hive, when a flicker of movement caught his eye. Switching to infrared, he saw one of the Wendigos just as the creature leapt towards him.

Catching the Wendigo by the throat, O'rika held the thrashing creature at arm's length, and looked it over. This one was smaller than the previous Wendigo he had encountered, and from the look of its attire, it was far older as well.

The Predator was internally debating on whether or not to kill the Wendigo (remembering what he'd read in the old man's journal), when the creature managed to kick the Yautja in the face, causing him to release his grip.

He hadn't really registered the strength of the Wendigos, thus the sheer force behind the blow caused him to stagger back. The Wendigo attempted to capitalize on that, leaping towards the Predator, but O'rika unsheathed his wrist blades and slashed the Wendigo's midsection, drawing parallel wounds in its skin.

Shrieking, the Wendigo moved to retreat, but O'rika, now annoyed, had made up his mind as to the Wendigo's fate.

Targeting the Wendigo with his plasma caster, O'rika fired, but the creature was fast, having leapt to another spot before the bolt could hit it. Locking on and firing again, O'rika was surprised to find the same result. He had to give the Wendigos credit; not even the Serpents could move that quickly in a short distance.

A third blast struck a nearby wall, causing the support structures to collapse and seal off that section of tunnel, allowing the Wendigo to flee. O'rika snarled in anger. The mines were unstable, so he'd have to be very careful with the use of his arsenal down here.

It was probably why the xenomorphs had taken refuge down here; they could collapse sections of the tunnels on any intruders. Most people who encountered the Serpents often assumed they were mindless monsters; wild animals with no higher instincts.

And while that was true to a certain extent, the Yautja had always known that the xenomorphs were capable of intelligent thinking, even being smart enough to cut power and work an elevator.

The sound of a Serpent screeching interrupted his musings, and he followed an adjacent tunnel that led to another clearing in the mine. Looking around, the Yautja was surprised to find another of those strange totems lying on the ground.

Picking it up, O'rika took a close look, noticing a different design to the previous totem.

* * *

_Sam and Mike made their way through the mine when they heard the shrieking of a Wendigo coming from behind them. Running through the tunnel, they were so caught up that they both ran right into the large bulk of the Predator._

_Spotting the Wendigo behind them, O'rika pushed the two teens aside, targeting the pursuing cannibal with his plasma caster. The bolt struck the Wendigo in mid leap, blowing its head apart._

_Meanwhile, Mike and Sam had recovered from where the Hunter had tossed them aside, got up and attempted to quietly leave when they heard the Predator growling and felt its gaze upon them._

_Spinning around, they found that the Yautja's triangle shaped targeting lasers were dancing between the two of them, as if debating on whether or not to kill them. Suddenly emitting a surprised growl, O'rika fired._

* * *

O'rika replaced the totem on the ground, curious as to its purpose. Recalling the stranger's journal, the Predator remembered that the Natives had some sort of runes and artifacts that could keep the Wendigos at bay, and the stranger had replicated them to the best of his ability.

Was that what these totems were for? Making an area untouchable to the Wendigos? That thought triggered O'rika's memories of the story of an old hunt with a similar artifact: approximately 500 years ago, a clan of Yautja had found a planet teeming with excellent prey species, including xenomorphs.

What was interesting about this planet was the presence of ancient alien ruins built by the ones before; the Pilots, or the Engineers, the name of that species was of little relevance anymore. What was curious was one artifact in an underground chamber.

Supposedly, when active, this device emitted a pulse that drove any Serpents back into the tunnels and kept them from entering this chamber. A hunting party established a camp around this artifact, but sadly, things went wrong and the Predators on the planet were considered lost.

O'rika wondered if the stranger's wards were anything like that, and also mused on how much easier his job would be if he something similar to the Pilot artifact. 'At the very least,' O'rika thought, 'It would be much easier to contain the Serpents down here.'

Speaking of the Serpents...

Unsheathing his wrist blades, O'rika slashed through the head of the xenomorph that had been crawling down the wall behind him. The event was so quick that it took a second for the Serpent to register what had happened before its face fell to the floor, shortly before its body followed.

O'rka looked over the fresh corpse as its blood melted through the stone ground. The alien had expected an easy kill, but the Hunter had still been aware of his surroundings, even while deep in thought.

Disposing of the body, O'rika resumed his journey through the mine. There were more Serpents to kill.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It had been surpisingly easy to get past the deer. As long as you didn't provoke them, they wouldn't harm you. Still, it had been rather frightening for Matt and Emily to have been cornered at the edge of a cliff like that, but they were past it now.

After that harrowing experience, Matt and Emily had finally made it to the fire tower. Matt had to leave his axe behind in order to climb the ladder, but Emily had found a flare gun in a locker, which she had given to him. Climbing up to the top, the two of them found a radio they could use to call for help.

After calling and learning that the rescue efforts would only be able to arrive at dawn, the two of them heard a noise as someone was trying to get through the hatch from the ladder. After several seconds, the disturbance was gone, but then... someone cut the supports.

The fire tower had collapsed, taking the two of them into a large mineshaft. Emily was left hanging onto the endge for dear life while Matt attemtped to save her. Sadly, the wreckage was unstable and the tower collapsed again, sending Matt into another tunnel.

Groaning, Matt recovered and got on his feet, looking around for his girlfriend. His heart sank when he didn't see her. Looking over the edge of the shaft, Matt called for Emily, terrified of what might have happened. The lack of reply indicated the worst.

"Damn it." He whispered in despair.

He wasn't fast enough. He couldn't save her. He wasn't good enough to save her. A part of him just wanted to stay where he was, alone in his grief, but the rest of him knew that he had to get out. The others were still in danger from the Psycho on the mountain. He needed to get to them.

Matt turned and left down the tunnel, but he didn't get very far before he felt something behind him. Spinning around, he was surprised to see... nothing. Then something grabbed him from behind.

Whatever the hell was dragging him down the mine, it was unnaturally strong. He couldn't break free of the strong grip around him. He needed something to even the odds, otherwise... he could only guess what his fate was going to be.

Then he remembered. The flare gun that Emily had given him. He still had it. Pulling it out, Matt checked that it was working condition. Without a clear line of sight though, Matt could only aim over his shoulder and hope for the best.

He fired.

There was an unnatural shrieking sound as his attacker released him, running away in pain. Recovering, Matt caught a glimpse of his assailant as it retreated deeper into the mine. It sure as hell wasn't human.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Matt looked around and realized that his only way out was to follow the monster that grabbed him. It wasn't like he wanted to do that, but looking around, he knew that he had no choice.

As Matt left, the flare's spluttering light slowly faded, but if he had bothered to look behind him, he would've seen a jet black shape crawling on the ceiling behind him. As the alien became level with the flare, the light glistened off its skin, giving it the appearance of a demonic beast.

Then the light flickered out, plunging the tunnel into darkness.

* * *

"I'll admit, this is a setback."

"A setback-? Owen, this is a freaking disaster! We've lost more xenomorphs in one night than we have all week, we're seriously understaffed, the authorities will be here by dawn, and on top of all that, there may be a fucking Predator in the area! We need to leave, now."

"Evac's not for another two days. We're just going to hold the fort."

"And what about the Hive? Even if they don't notice us, it'll be hard to miss that. Not to mention these other creatures."

"We'll have to resort to the usual subterfuge. Blackmail, bribery, the works."

"With everything that's happened tonight, will that even work?"

"It'll work. They'll really want to make this go away, and we can provide the means to make that happen."

...

"And what of... the other problem? What do we do if a Predator is really loose on the mountain?"

"I'll release the remaining specimens. Hopefully, that'll stop it."

"And if it doesn't?"

"..."

"... Fuck."

* * *

Finally making his way back to the lodge, Mike had found that all the doors were locked, and headed towards the basement window to see if he could find anyone. As luck would have it, Sam was walking near the window (while covered in nothing but a bath towel), and he got her to get him inside.

After giving the brief rundowns as to what was happening in their situations, Sam took a quick break to change into something that wasn't a bath towel, before the two of them entered the hallway.

Hearing screaming behind another door, Mike and Sam pushed until the door opened, and entered to see Chris and Ashley strapped to chairs, with rotating saw blades hanging over their heads. As the lights turned on, the four of them saw the Psycho coming from the opposite side of the room.

"No, no! Stay back!" Ashley cried.

Chris aimed the gun he had been given, at the Psycho and pulled the trigger until it was empty, only to find that nothing happened. The Psycho chuckled in amusement.

"Oh, Chris. Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris." The distorted voice said, to Chris' confusion. "Oh, you've heard of blanks before? I mean, really?"

The Psycho pulled off his mask, revealing him to be-

"Josh!" Sam shouted in both confusion and anger.

Josh just burst out laughing, while everyone else just took in the situation in both anger and confusion. Eventually, Josh calmed down and addressed the room.

"Well done, you all got my name. Good, good. I mean, how does it feel to be humiliated? Scared? Alone? All the emotions that my sisters got to feel, just one year ago. Except they didn't get to laugh it off. Nope, no, no, no, they're gone!"

"I don't know if you noticed, Josh," Mike snarled, "But none of us are laughing."

"Oh come on, don't be like that."

The four of them listened as Josh started ranting about how difficult it was for him to set all this up, while Mike and Sam simultaneously unshackled Chris and Ashley from their chairs. All four of them couldn't believe that Josh was behind all this.

Ashley was horrified at how Josh had attacked her and put her in two situations where she could've died. Worse still, in the second one, he brought Chris into that. And when he put the gun to his head, she had begged him not to pull the trigger. If that gun hadn't been loaded with blanks... she didn't want to think about it.

Chris couldn't believe that his best friend had done all this to him. Hurting Ashley, faking his own death. That had been a gut punch in and of itself, but knowing Josh had been behind it... he just couldn't believe it.

For his part, Mike was furious. With hindsight, he knew that the prank they had played on Hannah and Beth was really harsh, but this was... how could Josh do this? And how could he do that to Jess?

Sam just couldn't believe that Josh could do all this. She thought she knew him. After everything that happened after last year, she thought they had bonded. She thought that she and he- She had to know why.

"Josh, why are you doing this?"

"Oh, don't even ask this squirrelly little runt." Mike interjected. "He's got no idea. He's out of his fucking tree."

"Well, he's definitely off his meds." Chris pointed out, glaring at his best friend.

"Oh, come on you guys." Josh protested. "Revenge is the best medicine!"

Josh then started ranting about how the recordings of this would be going viral, and that they would become Internet celebrities. He said that they should be thankful for that! Eventually, Mike couldn't take it anymore.

"What are you talking about you asshat?!" Mike snapped. "Jessica's fucking dead!"

"... What?"

Mike didn't know what reaction he thought that would elicit from Josh, but confusion wasn't what he had been expecting. It was his plan, Josh knew what he did. His blood up, Mike approached the delusional asshole, holding the revolver he had found in the Sanitorium.

"Did you hear me?" He ground out. "Jessica. Is dead."

He raised the revolver, and swung it at Josh's head.

"And you ARE GOING TO FUCKING PAY YOU DICK!"

Josh fell to the ground, unconscious from the force of the blow.

...

A while later, Chris and Mike had escorted a restrained Josh to the shed, while the delusional Washington brother kept claiming that he had no idea about what had happened to Jess. Eventually, Chris went back to the lodge while Mike stayed with Josh.

"You sure you're going to be alright?" Chris asked before he left.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Mike replied. "Go on, let the girls know things are alright."

"Alright, well, see you in the morning."

As Chris left, Josh started ranting yet again.

"Ooh, sleepover. We gonna order pizza?"

Sighing, Mike settled down for a long night.

* * *

Emily had managed to escape from the collapsed radio tower and made her way through the mines. Though from what she could tell, Matt hadn't made it. And that... well, she couldn't process it. He had tried to help her so many times, and she had just taken him for granted. She had been a terrible girlfriend.

For a moment, she was tempted to give in to despair, but falling rocks and an unnatural hissing sound reminded her that an unstable mineshaft was not the best place to start grieving. Making a torch using one of her spare tops, she began exploring the tunnels.

During her search for an exit, she came across several disturbing things, the most prominent being Beth's head. In addition, she found evidence to suggest that Hannah had survived the fall and had been living down here for weeks.

This little detail had not done wonders to decrease her anxiety, and the background noises weren't helping. She quickly made her way through the caverns, constantly on edge due to the unnatural sounds echoing through the tunnels.

Shrieks, screeching, hissing, the occasional clash and screams as whatever made them came into conflict, and the shouts of some guy with a flamethrower permeated the atmosphere, with occasional bursts of fire not helping her anxiety.

A little later, more distinct noises started making their way through the caverns. Some sort of strange clicking noise, punctuated by low and deep growling seemed to emerge from the background. The clash of blades, followed by a loud inhuman screeching scream, and an even louder inhuman roar brought Emily to a halt, along with all other noise.

With the constant unnatural sounds before, the silence was almost defeaning. It broke when the cacophony started again, even louder than before. Picking up the pace, she unintentionally found herself heading closer to the clicking noise, and as she rounded a corner, she saw what was making it.

It was hard to make out what it was in the darkness, but from what little she could see, it was over 7 feet tall, covered in strange armor and tribal clothing, was wearing what she hoped to God was some sort of camera over its left shoulder and had a pair of blades extending from above its right hand.

Emily immediately ducked back behind the corner, but the creature let out what sounded like a surprised noise, and she realized it may have seen her. Poking her head slightly past the corner, she looked back just in time to see it turn invisible. She ducked her head back yet again.

"Oh, shit."

She barely breathed that sentence on reflex, but even then it seemed know where she was, as the occasional clicking noise drew closer to her hiding spot. Then a low hissing emerged from the tunnel.

The creature erupted in roaring as it was joined by more screeching, and soon the sounds of struggle returned. Risking a peek, Emily saw a jet black monstrosity pinning the armored being to the side of the tunnel. The monster's elongated head closed in on the hunter's mask, and she could see its mouth opening.

With a sudden burst of strength, the hunter pushed the creature back, just before a strange appendage shot out of its mouth. Pushing the advantage, the hunter jammed its blades through the monster's head, causing it to scream and convulse.

In its death convulsions, the creature's razor sharp tail accidently struck the wooden frame holding up the tunnel near Emily. This caused the path opening between her and the monsters to collapse as she jumped back, screaming.

Panicking, she ran through the caves and eventually made it to the elevator. When she got up to the top floor, however, she saw the Flamethrower guy coming down the tunnel, though fortunately, he hadn't seen her.

* * *

The Stranger was hunting in the mines when he heard noises suggesting a conflict. This time it didn't just sound like a clash between the Wendigos and the black creatures. It sounded like... something else was in here.

Making his way towards one of the elevator shafts, he heard a sound that suggested it was active and made his way towards it. As he moved to investigate, a flicker of movement caught his eye, and he turned, expecting one of the monsters to ambush him.

Except it wasn't. It was one of those kids running further through the mine. What was she doing down here? Then again, the reason didn't matter. She needed to leave, before one of the monsters found them. The Stranger called out and followed her.

"Wait!" He whispered, wary of attracting attention.

However, the girl either failed to hear or ignored him, and kept running. Eventually, she crossed the scattered bridge in one of the caverns, and the Stranger followed, still calling out.

Eventually, the girl reached a dead end and started whimpering. The Stranger approached, shushing her. He lifted her on her feet, and tried to reassure her, but it didn't work. She needed to stay quiet, before- a shrieking sound behind him confirmed his fear.

A Wendigo lowered itself from the ceiling, so the Stranger broke the wall behind the now screaming girl and pushed her down the shaft.

"Use these!" He tossed a bag of flares to her, before shouting, "Get out of here!"

With that, he turned around and released a blast of fire, causing the Wendigo to back off. The supernatural being shrieked and retreated, primal fear overtaking it as the fire loomed closer.

As he pushed it back towards the bridge, the Wendigo suddenly doubled its speed and leapt off towards the other side of the bridge, retreating further into the tunnels. Cautiously, the hermit made his way across the bridge.

There was only one real reason for a Wendigo to retreat like that: there was something nearby that it was terrified of more than fire. That thought did not fill the Stranger with much confidence.

He quickly realized what the Wendigo was afraid of: As he was walking across the bridge, he saw something shift in the corner of his eye, and turned towards it.

One of those jet black creatures was clinging to the side of the cavern wall, nearly invisible in the low light. When the stranger turned, the creature lunged at him with a menacing screech.

* * *

**Cliffhanger! I know, I'm evil. Tell you what, I'll give you all another totem vision hinting of what's to come. Now remember, this is what could** **_possibly_ ** **happen, not what will** **_actually_ ** **happen.**

**With that said:**

* * *

The scientist ran, fleeing from the destruction left in his wake. He knew this whole experiment was a bad plan from the start. He should've just refused to do this, but the pay was too good to pass up.

And now he was paying the price for that greed. The outpost was destroyed, the specimens were loose, and to top off the shitstorm, there really was a Predator loose on the mountain.

The only shred of good news was the fact that the Predator would be too busy dealing with the xenomorphs to chase after a lowly experimenter like him. At least that's what he thought.

A sharp pain in the back of his leg brought him to the ground, screaming in agony. Looking at his leg, he found a sharp two-pronged spear tip embedded in the back of his ankle. A familiar clicking noise drew his attention and to his horror, the Predator uncloaked, looming over him.

Whimpering, the scientist could only scream when the Hunter reached into his leg and pulled out the projectile. He could swear the Predator was intentionally making it as painful as possible.

Once the spear had been removed, the Yautja grabbed the scientist by the neck and lifted him in the air, while unsheathing the wrist blades in his right gauntlet. The scientist quickly became aware of a wet sensation in his pants: he had just soiled himself.

But when the Predator raised his blades to finish him, he was interrupted by a howling shriek permeating the cold winter air. The scientist realized that a dozen of the inhabitants of the mountain were climbing on the trees surrounding them.

As he took realization in the fact that they were surrounded, he suddenly registered another noise emanating from his captor. The Predator was...

Laughing?

The scientist felt his blood run cold at the sound of the Yautja approximation of human laughter. That was never a good sign. And the sign got even worse when the Predator just threw him at a nearby tree.

Immediately, the mountain's inhabitants were surrounding him, while ignoring the Predator, who was standing unnaturally still.

"What the hell are you looking at me for?!" He desperately yelled, pointing towards the motionless Hunter. "He's just standing right there!"

In response, the tallest creature grabbed him by the head, and dragged the screaming scientist across the snow covered mountain, all while the Predator silently watched. That's when he realized what the Predator knew.

Whatever these things would do to their victims, it was far worse than anything an Yautja could do. Armed with that terrifying knowledge, the scientist's screams grew louder, yet they were ultimately drowned out by the howling wind.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

The charge left the stranger no time to move or react, but before the alien could reach him, a blue bolt lanced over the man's right shoulder and struck the creature head-on, causing it to be blasted backwards and spilling acidic blood all over the rock wall.

The man turned to find another figure on one of the outcroppings. This 'person' stood at over 7 feet tall, was covered in reptilian like skin, had dreadlock-like appendages emerging from its head, and had a strange mask over its face.

With a start, the stranger realized that it was the being he had seen camouflaged on the cable car up here. The being nodded to him, seemingly in a sign of respect. Surprised, the stranger returned the gesture, only to see something moving behind the Hunter.

The creature's hissing drew the hunter's attention just in time for it to lunge at him, sending both combatants flying into a pillar, causing a cave in that sealed off the section of the tunnel. The hunter let out an inhuman roar that echoed through the mine.

"Shit." The Stranger quietly swore, wary of attracting Wendigos.

Well, he now knew that the invisible being he had seen earlier was indeed an ally... of sorts. And it seemed that he was here to kill the black creatures infesting the mountain, which would be helpful in the long run.

Of course, he couldn't assume that the hunter would stay helpful once its prey were all dead, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, the Stranger had to head back up to the Washington lodge.

It was time these kids knew what they were up against. He had hoped that he could keep the situation out of sight, but the girl's presence in the mine proved that that was no longer possible. Besides, after what happened last year, they deserved to know the truth about the deaths of the two of teens.

With that in mind, the Stranger made his way to the nearby exit.

* * *

O'rika was unharmed but annoyed. Due to the instability of the caverns, he had to be careful as to what weapon he used and where, otherwise the Predator risked causing the mines to collapse on top of them.

This aspect didn't affect the Serpent that was bearing down on him, which O'rika immediately threw to the adjacent wall. Quickly pulling out his spear gun, the Predator fired three rounds. The first two pinned the xenomorph to the wall, while the third decapitated it.

Retrieving the spears and disposing of the body, O'rika reflected on his progress. He had killed eight Serpents, which meant that no more than four still remained. Unfortunately, finding the last of them would likely prove to be difficult.

It didn't help that these Wendigos kept getting in his way. Compared to the Serpents, they were much weaker, but also much faster. As a whole, they were an irritating distraction to deal with.

With that in mind, the Yautja pondered as to what the Serpents would do next. Surrounded on all sides, the xenomorphs would likely go after prey that was much easier to deal with. Something like... 'The humans!'

With that in mind, O'rika took off through the mines, following the map on his gauntlet until he reached the surface.

* * *

Emily ran through the wilderness, screaming in terror. The shrieking of one of those things followed her, as the humanoid abomination was no doubt tailing her. After the Flamethrower guy pushed her down the shaft, she had encountered yet another monster prowling around.

This creature looked more human than the other two, which in a way, made it more disturbing. Regardless, the monster had followed her as she escaped the tunnels, and during her escape, she had realized two things:

That creature couldn't see motionless objects very well, and they were afraid of fire. It was using these strategies that she was able to escape the creature with only a minor bite wound.

Nevertheless, the creature was undeterred and the shrieking followed her as she made her way towards the Lodge.

In the shed, Mike and Josh heard the sound of screaming. Mike looked at the restrained nutjob, before looking back at the door.

"Aw crap, what now?"

Back at the lodge, Emily's screaming had attracted the attention of her friends, and the door opened as soon as she started knocking. She fell to the ground as she crossed the threshold.

"Shut the door! Shut the door!" She shouted over the concerns of her friends. Chris immediately acquiesced.

"Emily are you alright?" Sam asked, as Emily caught her breath.

"What happened?"

Emily took a deep breath to calm herself and began. She explained how she had ended up in the mines, and quickly stated that she had seen monsters in the mines. Sam was the first to step in.

"It was Josh, everything's fine. He can't hurt you."

"No you don't understand. There's something else down in the mines, and they are not _human._ "

"What happened?" Chris asked, waiting for her to calm down. "Where's Matt?"

Emily took deep calming breaths before she was able to speak in a somewhat normal tone.

"We went to the cable car station, but it was trashed, so we went to the radio tower to call for help. The next thing I know, the tower falls and we're deep in the mine, like this huge freaking mineshaft and Matt..."

She trailed off as she remembered. "Oh my god, I think Matt might be dead."

They were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Mike entered, concern for Emily etched on his face. As soon as he got caught up on events, they were then interrupted by someone knocking on the front door.

"Who the hell is that?" Mike asked.

"Josh?" Chris suggested. "Or maybe Jess?"

"It's not Jess." Mike answered quickly. The wound was clearly still raw.

"Sorry man. But who could it be?"

"I guess we should go find out." Mike replied, pulling out the revolver.

The two of them walked to the door, and after a quick debate, it was decided that Chris would open the door while Mike would hang back with the gun to ensure that they could deal with whoever was on the other side.

But as soon as Chris turned the doorknob, the person on the other side kicked the door open, knocking him to the ground. The Stranger walked through the threshold, only to pause when he saw Mike holding gun on him.

"Uh, uh, uh. Hold it right there." He said in an arrogant tone.

The stranger just raised his eyebrow, as if to say 'Really?' Faster than Mike expected, he grabbed the gun and twisted, disarming the teen, and leaving a formerly cocky Mike trying to regain control of the situation.

"Ok, now everyone just calm down." The Stranger muttered before gesturing towards the living room. "Get over there. Go on." Seeing little choice, Mike and Chris agreed. "Let me say what I came to say."

As the five of them gathered, he addressed them all.

"I'm here to tell you, what you're dealing with, being back on this mountain." He turned towards the fireplace, dropping his bag right next to it. "You should never have returned."

He turned back as Chris moved to sit next to Ashley, while Sam sat near Emily. "I don't know why you did after what happened last year."

"Wait, you mean what happened to Hannah and Beth?" Ashley asked. Chris' eyes narrowed.

"How could you know about that without being involved?"

"Or responsible?" Sam accused, to the Stranger's ire.

"Now just hold on there." The could all see how insulted he felt at the accusation. "I don't take kindly to you kids trespassin' on my mountain-"

"Your mountain?" Mike interjected with a smirk. "Huh, I'm pretty sure the Washingtons would be very interested to know about that." The Stranger chuckled.

"Well the mountain don't belong to me, it's true. But it don't belong to the Washingtons." He turned to look at each of them in turn before finishing.

"This mountain belongs to the Wendigo."

There were various expressions of confusion from everyone before Sam said that they should hear him out. The Stranger then continued his explanation.

"Now I'm only going to tell you this once. It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not. I've got reasons I want it off my chest..."

"See, I told you." Mike exclaimed, pointing at him. "He's guilty as shit. Guilty of something."

Sam shushed him, while the Stranger took a deep breath and began.

"There is a curse, that dwells in these mountains. If anyone in these woods resorts to cannibalism, the spirit of the Wendigo will be released."

"Oh, crap." Mike muttered, as he realized that the Wendigo was the one who had taken Jess. It had been the head he had shot at after the elevator fell.

"What about those black creatures?" Emily interrupted. "And that masked... invisible guy?"

"Invisible- you mean the Hunter?"

The group all looked at each other. A name like "the Hunter" sounded rather foreboding. The fact that it could apparently turn invisible was not exactly welcoming news either.

"I'm not too sure about either of them." The Stranger sighed. "The black ones appeared a week ago, and I'm still not entirely sure how they got here. As for the hunter, he showed up just after you did."

"Wait, someone else has been following us?" Mike asked, concern etched on his face.

"From what little I've seen, he's come here to hunt the black creatures. He sure seems to know more about them than I do."

The Stranger turned to look at the window, as if expecting a Wendigo or the bugs to be standing there. "Regardless, I know one thing; the other creatures are just as hostile as the Wendigo. You kids need to get somewhere safe."

The teens looked at each other before Sam spoke. "The basement should be secure." The Stranger nodded.

"Alright. Get down there. All of you. And wait."

"Wait? For how long?" Sam asked. Emily answered for her.

"Until dawn."

"Guys." Everyone turned to look at Mike's unnerved face. "I ran and left Josh when I heard screaming."

"Where did you leave him?" The Stranger asked.

"In the shed."

"Mhm. Your friend is already dead."

"What? No." Chris stood up. "No, that can't be, we were just with him." The Stranger gave a dark chuckle.

"A lot can happen quickly on this mountain."

"Well, I'm going to go get him." Chris said. After a brief argument with his friends, Chris reiterated his intentions to bring Josh back.

"Then, I'm going with you." The Stranger declared.

As soon as everyone else left to go to the basement, the Stranger turned to Chris.

"Do you know what you're doing?" He asked.

"I'm going to get Josh."

"No, _I'm_ going to get Josh. You're going to help me. Is that understood?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Chris muttered, following him to the door.

As Chris and the Stranger reached the foyer, the old hermit pulled the shotgun from his back and handed it to him.

"This is the end you point towards the thing you want to kill." The Stranger said, pointing at the barrel. Chris rolled his eyes.

"I know how to use a shotgun, man."

"No, you don't."

"What? How do you know?" He asked in indignation. The old man smirked.

"Trust me, I know."

"The Stranger opened the door, and Chris was about to follow when he heard a voice.

"Hey." Ashley walked up to him. "Come back safe."

Before Chris could respond, she leaned towards him and her lips met his. When she pulled back, Chris was stunned for a second. Did Ashley just-?

"We need to hurry, son." The Stranger's voice broke him from his stupor. He looked towards him, then looked back at Ashley.

"I'll see you soon." Chris whispered, before turning away and following the Stranger outside.

Ashley closed the door behind him, and kept watch through the door window.

"So tell me," Chris looked at the Stranger, knowing he'd have to focus on the task at hand, and not the fact that Ashley just kissed him... and how her lips felt really good against his- focus. "You're the expert on these things. Wha-what's a guy gotta know?"

"You just stay close, now." The Stranger said. "And follow my lead."

The two unlikely companions were walking for a bit, before Chris had to ask something. "So how strong is this thing? I mean, how many times do I have to shoot it with this shotgun to put it down?"

The Stranger chuckled. "Well, you're gonna be shooting it for a while."

The implications of that statement sent a chill down Chris' spine. "Wait, you're kidding right?" Silence answered him. "Well... shit. Then how do you kill them?"

"They don't like fire."

"I don't like fire!" Chris retorted, to the Stranger's amusement.

"Fire's the best way to kill the Wendigo." He explained. "Their skin is like armor, immune to bullets and knives, so it needs to be burnt off."

"Gross." Another thought occured to him. "What about those black creatures? Are they bulletproof too?" The Stranger's expression turned thoughtful, then concerned.

"I don't think so, but I would advise against shooting them at close range."

"Wait, why?"

"'Cause their blood will melt through any material it comes into contact with." Chris did a double take.

"Seriously? Jesus, where the fuck did those things come from?"

"I asked myself that same question." The Stranger replied. "About a week ago, I saw a bunch of lights in the sky, almost like an aircraft of some sort, touch down at the mountain's summit. From the tracks I saw at the landing site, there were no more than a dozen of the things."

They spoke more on the subject, as the Stranger related that the Wendigos see movement, so standing still could camouflage them. The Stranger also told Chris that despite their lack of eyes, the black creatures could see, and trying that tactic on them likely wouldn't work.

"The only thing the Wendigos have in common with them, besides hunting at night, is that both don't like fire."

Unknown to Chris and the Stranger, someone was listening intently to the conversation. Soon, the two of them were at the shed, and it was immediately apparent that something was wrong.

For starters, the shed door had been broken wide open, when Mike would've undoubtedly shut them before leaving for the lodge. The second sign was the fact that Josh was missing. The stool he had been sitting was missing two legs, and the pillar he had been tied to was severely damaged.

"Goddamn it." Chris muttered.

The Stranger took a look around, both in and outside of the shed.

"We need to leave, right now."

"We can't." Chris protested. "Josh could still be alive."

The Stranger sighed and looked at him.

"First, the Wendigo renders you completely immobile. Then he strips the skin off you, before finally eating your organs, all while conscious." He explained, to Chris' horror. "Unless you want that to happen to us, we need to leave now."

Chris nodded and exited the shed with the old man. Suddenly, they heard a shrieking noise nearby. The Stranger ordered Chris to hold still, but soon changed his mind as the howling grew closer.

"Go!" He shouted as he ran. "Get back to the lodge!" This act nearly doomed him.

The Wendigo leapt at the Stranger, intent on killing the man who had made their lives hell for so many years, but in mid-lunge it was intercepted by one of the black creatures, who tackled it to the ground.

Chris and the Stranger watched as the two monsters struggled. Eventually, the Wendigo pushed the creature away, but the black bug recovered quickly and hissed. The Wendigo backed away and retreated into the trees.

"Run." The Stranger whispered. The creature turned to look at them. "Go! Go, go, go!"

The two companions set off running through the forest, with the monster following close behind. Chris' leg got caught on a branch and he tripped, losing the shotgun in the process.

The Stranger noticed and ran back, flamethrower pointing towards the monster. Chris turned and saw the creature was less than five feet away, and looked ready to pounce. Two other facts became immediately apparent.

One: at least 7 other creatures were following this one, as Chris could see them emerging from the forest or crawling on the trees. And Two: a trio of targeting lasers in the shape of a triangle had appeared on the elongated head of the lead creature.

Before Chris or the Stranger could do anything, the monster pounced, only to be blasted back by a blue bolt of energy, spraying yellowish-green blood over the ground, which started emitting steam.

A massive silhouette landed in front of the two humans, which suddenly turned visible, revealing a humanoid being with reptilian skin, covered in strange armor and weapons. The hunter looked at them, a clicking noise emerging from behind its mask when suddenly... it spoke.

" _Run. Get out of here!_ "

The fact that it spoke was surprising enough, but what was even more surprising was that it used the Stranger's voice. Briefly pointing in the direction of the lodge, the Hunter then turned back to the snarling creatures and issued a challenging roar, which was enough to get Chris and the Stranger moving.

They left the vicious conflict behind, as hissing, screeching and inhuman roaring filled the air behind them as Chris grabbed the shotgun as he ran. Briefly chancing a glance behind them, he could only see black shapes being tossed aside, and the occasional flash of blue light from the hunter's weapon.

As the two companions closed in on the lodge, Chris heard a noise behind him, and turned just in time to see one of the black creatures dragging the stranger away, leaving his flamethrower behind in the process.

Chris had just enough time to notice that the old man's eyes were closed in unconsciousness before the creature dragged him behind the trees, but before he could even think about following, the sound of shrieking appeared from nearby.

The Wendigo leapt off a tree in front of him, growling before leaping towards him. In a heartbeat, Chris fired his shotgun, sending it back. But the cannibal recovered quickly, so Chris fired his shotgun at the discarded flamethrower, sending them both flying.

Chris recovered and ran, leaping over the incline, and breaking his leg in the process. Now limping, Chris was nearly at the door when the Wendigo reappeared in front of him, before lunging again.

Another blast from the shotgun sent it flying, and he discarded the now empty weapon, heading directly for the door. Fortunately, Ashley was waiting, and opened it as soon as he crossed the threshold.

"Chris, what happened?" She asked, closing the door behind him. "Are you alright?"

"We gotta go." He said, brushing her questions off for now. "Down to the basement. Hurry!"

The two of them ran downstairs, leaving the monsters behind.

...

In the basement, Chris was met by a barrage of questions from the others.

"Chris what happened?" Mike asked. "Where's the flamethrower guy?"

"He was dragged off." Chris muttered.

"And Josh?" Sam asked.

"The Wendigo took him."

"What about those other creatures?" Ashley asked. "And the Hunter? Were they out there too?"

"They're aliens."

Everyone turned to look at Chris as what he just said sunk in. It was Sam who broke the silence.

"What?"

"I-I think those other things are aliens." It was Mike who spoke next.

"Chris, that's insane. You must've hit your head on the way back."

"Look, I know what I saw Michael!" Chris snapped. "That thing. That... Hunter. It had technology I've never seen before. And those black things... they definitely aren't human."

"I think he might be right." Emily had been silent until now. "I saw those things in the mines, and they definitely were never human."

"Then why the hell are they here?" Mike responded, still not entirely convinced.

"I don't know." Chris sighed. "I just... I don't know."

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then Mike broke the silence.

"Right, alien or not, we need to get out of here. The cable car's probably our best bet."

"We can't." Emily countered. "The station was trashed and the key was missing."

"Josh!" Mike realized. "He's gotta have it. You all stay here, I'm going to get him."

"Are you insane?" Sam protested. "You can't go out there, not with all those things prowling around. Besides rescue should be here by dawn, right Emily?"

"Yeah... I think so."

"Look, you guys can stay, I'm going to get Josh."

"Mike, we should all stay here." Emily protested, but it fell on deaf ears.

"You can stay here if you want, I'm going to get the keys to the cable car."

"Mike, seriously, we should stay and wait for help to-" Sam began, but Mike cut her off.

"Wait for help? We're trapped on a mountain with a supernatural cannibalistic monster, and TWO species of hostile aliens! I'd rather do something than wait for help that might not even come."

The sound of inhuman roar emerged from outside the lodge, causing everyone to jump in fright.

* * *

Five minutes earlier

As soon as O'rika had directed the old man and the child back to the lodge, he set to work, targeting the nearest Serpent with his plasma caster. The superheated projectile blew it apart, only for another one to come leaping forward.

The Predator intercepted the lunge with his wrist blades, drawing two parallel wounds in the xenomorph's chest. Seizing the advantage, he threw the dying creature at one of its fellows, before hurling his smart disc and bisecting them both.

As the disc returned, O'rika side stepped a projectile of liquid, which splattered on a nearby tree and began chewing through it. Turning to the source, O'rika saw an unusual Serpent crawling on a tree. The creature was lighter in colour than its brethren, and lacked the prominent dorsal tubes of human-born xenomorphs.

The Predator knew of this caste: they were born from quadrapedal animals and could spit acid from a distance. To him, it was an annoyance. Pulling out his spear gun, the Yautja pinned the creature's corpse to the trunk of the tree.

Unfortunately, this allowed a xenomorph to take him by surprise, knocking O'rika to the ground. The two extra terrestrials briefly struggled before the Predator registered the sound of wood splintering.

Mustering his strength, the Yautja threw the Serpent off him, coincidently sending it into the path of the falling tree, the Runner's acid attack finally taking its toll. The xenomorph only had enough time to scream before the weight of the tree crushed it.

The last two Serpents broke off and ran, chased by plasma bolts. As soon as they had vanished, O'rika went to work disposing of the bodies. Such a battle should have been cause for celebration, but O'rika had a problem:

There were more xenomorphs on the mountain than there should be.

How was that possible? The stranger said only a dozen xenomorphs had been here, and from his own observations, O'rika had agreed. But from what he just saw, there were more than that, having already killed eight before coming to this battle.

Maybe the old man had counted wrong, but the Yautja didn't think so, as his own tech and hunting skills agreed with that number. And the xenomorphs hadn't been breeding since they didn't have the time, or the eggs, so where were the Serpent reserves coming-?

The Company.

Suddenly, it all made sense. This place wasn't just a dumping ground for the feral xenomorphs, it was yet another of Weyland-Yutani's pointless experiments. They were still here, still manipulating the Serpents from behind the scenes.

Clenching his fist, O'rika unsheathed his wrist blades and roared. It was time to put an end to Weyland-Yutani's experiments on this world.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Predator made his way back to the summit of the mountain, specifically to the location where the Company had dropped the xenomorphs. O'rika quickly went over what he knew in his head; if Weyland-Yutani was still monitoring the Serpents, then they'd have an outpost close by, most likely on the side of the mountain.

The Yautja didn't know what kind of experiment the Company was running, nor did he really care. All that mattered was wiping all traces of Weyland-Yutani's presence from this Earth.

This wasn't solely out of hatred for the company, but an environmental reason: it wouldn't be wise to allow the humans of this world access to highly advanced technology before they were ready for it.

Focusing on the task at hand, O'rika began searching for the entrance into the concealed outpost.

* * *

"Oh no." Luke muttered. "No, no, no, no, no."

"What is it?" Owen asked, as the blood drained from Luke's face. "What's wrong?"

His fellow scientist said nothing, merely pointing at the screen. When Owen took a look, he felt his own blood freeze at the implications.

The exterior motion sensors had been tripped.

"Calm down." He told Luke, who glared at him. "It could just be some of the local wildlife."

"Are you fucking serious?!" Luke all but shouted. "You really think that this is just another false alarm?!"

"Calm down." He repeated. "It could just be another deer that wandered into our perimeter. I'll dispatch some Combat androids to look into it."

Luke said nothing else, instead sitting back in his chair and started mumbling to himself. Owen gave the order for two combat androids to check the exterior of the outpost hatch, all while ignoring the pit in his stomach.

It _could_ have been some of the local wildlife again. They'd been making a habit of crossing through the perimeter in the hopes of escaping the monstrous creatures. Still, he hadn't survived this long in Wey-Yu's science division by being complacent. And the fact that the exterior cameras weren't showing anything wasn't a good sign.

Sighing, Owen watched the status readings of the two androids as they rode the elevator to the surface.

* * *

O'rika crouched on a tree overlooking the hidden entrance to the Company outpost. Camouflaged to look like a rock formation, just like the rest of the pod-like structure perched on the side of the mountain, the hatch was well hidden from prying eyes.

The Predator knew that he had to coax security out, otherwise the whole facility would go into lockdown if he tried to break in manually. He could eventually beat the defenses, but why waste time?

To that end, he had intentionally set off the motion detectors and hacked the few surveillance cameras to broadcast a looped recording, using his wrist computer. Now all he had to do was wait.

O'rika didn't have to wait long; with a whirring noise, the hatch opened and a pair of combat synthetics emerged from an elevator. The two androids looked around, unaware that their target was behind them.

After a moment of scanning, the androids decided that there was nothing out here and that it was a false alarm. "Area secured." One reported over the radio, causing the Predator to inwardly chuckle. Wey-Yu combat androids weren't exactly known for their intelligence.

After a moment, the commander in the base had probably replied and told them to return to base. "Acknowledged." The synthetic replied, before keying a signal that opened the hatch. That was when the Yautja made his move.

O'rika fired a plasma bolt and hurled his smart-disc, destroying both androids before they could react. Pushing the corpses onto the elevator, the Predator rode down into the outpost until he reached the main door.

Grabbing both bodies, he used their IDs to trick his way into the base, hurling the corpses at the Combat Android who responded to the open door. At this point, the alarms started blaring, O'rika's intrusion having finally been detected.

One combat android rounded a corner, armed with a shotgun. It stared at the Predator for a second before declaring:

"Hunter detected. Switching tactics."

Whatever the new strategy was, O'rika would never know, as he decapitated the robot with a well placed plasma bolt. Rushing past, the Yautja moved through the puddle of white blood as he made his way into the facility.

Rounding another corner, O'rika found himself face to face with a squad of androids armed to the teeth. Unsheathing his wrist blades and pulling out his smart-disc, the Predator charged into the fray.

* * *

"Damnit! Luke, prep the evac procedures!" Silence greeted him. "Luke?"

Owen looked around, only to find that Luke had vanished. He swore. That gutless coward had chosen to run. Mechanical dying screams permeated through the hallways of the small facility, as the Yautja carved a path through the complement of Combat Androids.

Desperately searching through the control room, Owen looked for something, anything to help him, but there was nothing. Wherever Luke had run off to, he had taken his communicator and the hidden side arm.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind him. Something fell through and landed on the floor with a loud thud. The body of a combat android no doubt. Then there was the noise that made his blood run cold: a low clicking noise.

Owen tried to run, but the Predator fired a net from its gauntlet, pinning the head scientist to the wall. The net enclosed in on him, slowly cutting into the scientist's skin, causing Owen to scream in pain. The Yautja just watched as the net cut through the scientist, then left, leaving Owen to his agonizing death.

As his bleeding slowed, Owen could swear that the Predator was enjoying this. That was the scientist's final thought before his vision began to go dark.

* * *

O'rika scoured the databanks in the control room, looking for the procedure that he needed to activate. During his search, he listened to the sound of the scientist's screams of agony, feeling grim satisfaction as the net slowly sliced him apart.

The Yautja would've been happy to make the Weyland-Yutani employee suffer for even longer, but he was on a bit of a clock here, so the Predator just had to settle for what was happening to him now.

Turning his mind back to the search, O'rika was pleasantly surprised to find two tools that could help him: a fully completed geographic map of the mines thanks to the Company's echolocation drones, and the console that showed the tracking chips embedded within the Serpents.

Downloading the information onto his wrist gauntlet, O'rika kept searching through the consoles until he found the controls he was looking for; the ones keeping the facility's mini-reactor stable.

Having found the mini-reactor, O'rika set the power source to self-destruct, using the Company's own protocols. Weyland-Yutani knew that they would abandon this outpost eventually, so they had programmed in a self-destruct sequence that would cause the base to implode, leaving no evidence of their presence.

Setting the timer for two minutes, the Yautja ran through the building, passing by the combat androids he had slaughtered on his way here. If any of them survived, they wouldn't be able to escape the blast radius in time. Spotting a hatch in the ceiling, the Yautja blasted it open with a plasma bolt.

O'rika leapt out of the building and landed on the cliff above, just as the compound vanished in an implosion of blue light. There was a moment of silence, where the only ambient noise was the howling of the wind... then his bio-mask picked up a sound further away.

Spinning around with a growl, O'rika spotted a man dressed in a Weyland-Yutani lab coat, holding one of the VP78 sidearms from the lab. The scientist had noticed the Predator looking at him.

"Oh... shit." He stuttered. A dark stain appeared on his pants.

Panicking, the man shot three rounds at the Yautja, all of which bounced off his armor. O'rika activated his cloaking device, and the scientist immediately started running, swearing in panic.

O'rika chased after the fleeing scientist, not intending to show the man any mercy. He had escaped the Yautja's wrath once, but that wouldn't happen a second time. As the Predator sprinted, the man spun around and hurled an object into his path, which O'rika quickly realized was a frag grenade.

Leaping back, the Yautja was able to escape the blast radius, but it threw up a cloud of dust, blocking his human vision. Switching to infrared vision allowed O'rika to see the still fleeing scientist as he kept running.

As well as what was following him.

* * *

Luke didn't stop, not even after throwing the grenade. He held no delusions that the explosion had killed the Predator, but hopefully it would be enough of a distraction to allow Luke to-

'To do what?'

He was alone, cut off from any form of Company support, and surrounded on all sides by beings who would want to kill him in horrifying ways. 'Maybe I can get to the cable car, and get out of here.' He thought. 'Let the kids serve as bait. Claim to be the only survivor, and find a way to contact the Company.'

He liked the sound of that plan. He had to, it was the only one he had. Besides, he still had his communicator, which had a strong enough signal to reach any Weyland-Yutani ship in orbit.

With the Predator distracted and the kids dead, it would be a trivial matter to get extraction back to friendly space. Of course, there was still the matter of what the Company execs would do when they learned of the fiasco that happned, but he would cross that bridge when he got there. His primary goal right now, was survival.

He was still mulling it over when something blind sided him, causing him to drop his communicator and weapon in surprise. He hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him. Whatever attacked him rolled him onto his back and Luke whimpered, terrified that the Predator, or worse, the xenomorphs had caught him.

But to his surprise, he found that it was one of the native creatures that the specimens had come into conflict with. He had only seen them through the video filter of a combat android, but in person, he found that they were even more hideous.

That's when Luke noticed the Predator some distance behind the creature, just watching events play out, and standing unusually still. A chill traveled up his spine, and not just because of the cold; he could hear a small noise coming from the Yautja, almost like it was...

Laughing?

"What the hell are you looking at me for?" Luke screamed, pointing at the Predator. "That thing is just standing right there!"

In response, the creature grabbed the scientist by the head and started dragging him through the snow. His screams echoed through the mountain as the monster dragged him away, easily mistaken for the howling wind.

* * *

O'rika watched as the Wendigo took the Company scientist away, screaming at the top of his lungs. The Predator had been tempted to stop it, but then he remembered what the old man had said.

_'First, the Wendigo renders you completely immobile. Then he strips the skin off you, before finally eating your organs, all while conscious.'_

That was a fate well deserved for someone who willingly unleashed the Serpents here. Besides, the Predator would've done far worse. O'rika walked over to the where the scientist had dropped his comm and VP78 pistol, the only remaining evidence of Weyland-Yutani's presence (besides the xenomorphs).

Crushing them both underfoot, the Predator could now resume his hunt for the Serpents. Making his way to the nearest tunnel opening, O'rika pulled a mine from his bandolier and planted it at the entrance, set to detonate only when given the signal from his gauntlet.

Making his way through the mines, the Yautja found another entrance leading to the surface. Planting yet another mine, the Predator checked his gauntlet, finding two of the entrances on the map were now marked in red.

With the new maps and xenomorph trackers so graciously provided by Weyland-Yutani, O'rika could now end the Serpent infestation once and for all.

* * *

The Stranger awoke in a darkened passageway and two things became apparent. First, he was back in the mines, and second, something was dragging him down the tunnels. Initially thinking it was a Wendigo, the long black fingers around his head and razor sharp tail next to him put that suspicion to bed.

Taking a quick look around, the Stranger found that he only had the machete on him, having lost his flamethrower when the creature grabbed him, and having given his shotgun to the kid when they went for Josh.

Lacking any better option, he drew the machete and waited. The creature seemed unaware of his newly conscious state, and when it dragged him around the corner, he made his move. Swinging the machete, he drove the blade into the creature's skull.

Acidic blood reduced the blade to a puddle of liquid metal, but the damage was done, as the creature convulsed in pain, before slumping against the wall, releasing its grip on him. The Stranger had avoided the blood back spray and discarded the now useless machete.

Rising to his feet, the Stranger took a moment to steady himself and get his bearings. He was intimately familiar with most of the mine, and this section was no exception. He was close to the spare flamethrower that he had hidden down here long ago.

All he had to do was get to it. Shrieking and hissing interrupted his musings as the sound of conflict returned. It seemed the Wendigos were once again fighting the other creatures... and he was unarmed.

This may be a bit challenging.

* * *

In a darkened pit in the mine, something stirred. Groaning emerged from the battered form of Jessica as she woke from her painful fall into the mine. She couldn't remember much of what happened. All she knew was that someone grabbed her... and that Mike had came for her.

Everything after that was fuzzy. All she could remember was falling when the elevator collapsed and then... nothing. Grunting in pain, she struggled to get to her feet, taking in the damage to her body.

Cuts and lacerations covered her body, bruises had swollen her cheek and stomach, and her leg was seemingly broken or sprained. To top it all off, she was still in her underwear and it was freezing cold.

Spotting an old mining jacket nearby, she limped over to the discarded clothing and put it on, feeling the pain with every step she took. Taking a look around, Jess was still pondering her next move when she heard the sounds of shrieking and hissing coming fom nearby.

* * *

Sam, Chris, Ashley and Emily made their way through the mines in pursuit of Mike. He had run off to find Josh and the keys to the cable car, but while he was gone, Ashley had discovered the flamethrower guy's journal.

After reading through it, she learned that there was more than one Wendigo, and when Sam saw that, she realized that Mike would have no way of knowing that. Rallying the others, she led them after Mike, needing to warn him.

However, they had found one of the doorways blocked, and so had no choice but to take a short cut through the monster infested mines. Reaching a metal grate covering, the four of them stopped and moved to open it when Chris spoke.

"Guys," He groaned, the pain in his leg clearly affecting him. "I'm not sure I can keep up with the rest of you."

"Chris, what are you saying?" Ashley asked.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll stay here." He said, leaning against a wall. "I'm only slowing you down anyway."

"Chris, we can't just leave you here." Sam protested. "Not with all those things prowling around."

"Mike needs your help. And I'm just holding us up. If I stay, you can get to him sooner."

"Chris, we're not leaving you." Ashley stated with a tone of finality. "Not to any of those things."

She didn't want to lose him. Not now, not after everything that had happened tonight. With that settled, they opened the grate and climbed down into the mine. Ashley was the last, but as she made her way down, she realized that she would need to close the grate.

While everyone else went on ahead, she did just that. But as she followed the path the others had taken, she was interrupted by a noise. It almost sounded like...

"Help."

That voice. It sounded strained, but it was Jessica's voice. Ashley rushed towards the noise, finding the sound to be coming from a locked trapdoor. She moved to open it, but then she remembered something in the old man's journal.

The Wendigos had the ability to mimic voices. Slowly, she backed away from the trap door, conflicted about what she was doing. On one hand, if it was Jess, Ashley was abandoning her to die, but if it wasn't...

Her musings were interrupted when something warm and wet splattered on her hat. Confused, she brought her fingers to the substance, finding it surprisingly sticky. She realized it wasn't water... it was drool!

Looking up, she saw what could only be one of the black creatures crawling on the ceiling. It's head turned to her, and she caught a good view of its eyeless face and drooling mouth. The creature hissed, opening its mouth to reveal another set of teeth inside.

Screaming, Ashley bolted back the way she came, narrowly avoiding the creature's tail as it leapt down behind her. Unfortunately, she tripped on a piece of rebar, knocking her to the floor.

"Ashley!"

Whimpering, she crawled back, dimly aware of the sound of Chris' shouting coming from around the corner. The creature was focused only on her, seemingly enjoying the fear radiating from her.

Just as it moved in for the kill, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the alien's head, interrupting its lunge and throwing it to the ground with a loud inhuman roar. A large armored being with reptilian skin and dreadlocks held the black creature's head in one hand, while the other held a strange knife.

Snarling, the armored being jammed the blade into the creature's jaw, causing the creature to briefly screech before abruptly cutting off. The Hunter (for that was only what it could be), sheathed its dagger on his hip, before turning to regard her.

"Ashley."

She spun her head around to see Chris leaning on a wall and holding a hand out to her. He had arrived just in time to see the Hunter's arrival, who was now currently watching the two humans with his head cocked to the side seemingly in curiousity.

As Ashley got up, the sound of screeching emerged from behind the hunter, who turned to regard the source. The trapdoor that Ashley had heard Jess' voice from was now being battered, slowly breaking as whatever was behind forced it open.

Emitting a low growl, the hunter briefly turned back to them and pointed down where the two humans had come from.

" _GET OUT OF HERE!_ "

The voice almost sounded like a distorted recording of the flamethrower guy, but Ashley had no time to ponder that as Chris grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the main tunnel.

Sam and Emily rounded the corner as well, wondering what the disturbance was. They arrived just in time to see one of the black creatures break open the trap door, while the hunter slammed his fist into a nearby support column, causing that section of the tunnel to collapse.

For a long moment, the four of them just looked at the pile of rocks blocking the entrance to the tunnel. Then Emily asked the obvious question.

"What the fuck just happened?"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Mike cautiously made his way through the Sanitorium, with a sawed-off shotgun in hand, and the wolf he had befriended earlier by his side. His nerves were on edge ever since he arrived, as every little noise made him jump.

His search through the old offices had revealed that the Wendigos had existed since at least the fifties, and the noticeable scar on one that had jumped him in the atrium had proven the truth of that. These things were at least eighty years old, and yet they were near-unstoppable.

It didn't help when he thought about what the old man had told him about the black creatures and the Hunter. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense that he had seen the Hunter on his first visit here, up on the roof.

Combined with everything else that happened, and Mike was definitely unhappy. Josh was nowhere to be found, and when he checked the lower levels of the building, he discovered what the old hermit had been doing.

Within each cage a Wendigo lurked, most attempting to grab him as he walked by the bars. How he was able to keep himself from shooting each one as they attacked was beyond him, but he figured it was time to leave.

As he turned back, he almost walked into a cage with an open door and the current occupant leapt out and tried to grab him. Fortunately, the cannibal was cut short by the length of chain around its neck, pulling him back inside.

It was then that Mike noticed something unusual about this Wendigo: half of its right arm was missing, leaving a stump just above where its elbow should be. The cannibal had clearly been in contact with something else, and if Chris was right, it was probably one of the aliens.

That thought alone wasn't doing anything to decrease his discomfort, but before he had a chance to dwell on it, shrieking nearby alerted him to the presence of two Wendigos who were free from their cages.

"Oh shit!"

A shotgun shell sent one flying backwards, and using that distraction, Mike sprinted back through the Sanitorium, followed closely by the wolf, and reaching a wire mesh hallway to the rest of the facility proper.

Unfortunately, the door was locked, and the Wendigos were right behind him. A couple shotgun blasts sent them flying, providing enough time for Mike to kick a barrel filled with oil down the hall.

Another bullet ignited the barrel, causing an explosion that killed the two Wendigos and sent Mike flying against the door. His victory was short-lived as more shrieking indicated that more Wendigos were coming.

"Oh fuck me." He muttered, breaking through the door.

Taking a moment to barricade the entrance so those things wouldn't follow, Mike went back the way he came, separating with the wolf when it refused to jump down to a lower level with him.

Soon, he could see the door and began climbing the stairs to get out when two more Wendigos came in behind him. Spotting a load of barrels nearby, Mike took aim and fired, causing a massive chain reaction he barely escaped from.

The blast sent him flying as soon as he exited the door. Turning back, he was satisfied to hear the dying screams of the Wendigos who had been consumed by the fire. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he pressed on, unaware of the hand emerging from the rubble behind him.

* * *

The Stranger walked through the mines, having found the spare flamethrower he had hidden in one of the camps he had crafted in the tunnels. As he walked through the caverns, the ambient noise of the Wendigos, the black beasts, and the Hunter rose to a cacophony, as an all-out war seemed to rage in the confined space of the mine.

Ironically enough, he had yet to come across any danger since he had escaped from the bug-like monster. His musing was interrupted by low rumbling in the direction of the surface. He was tempted to go back and check, but the sound of someone groaning from nearby put those thoughts to bed.

Gritting his teeth, he raced towards the sound, hopefully before the Wendigos got to them... or worse.

* * *

Sam slowly made her way through the tunnel, constantly on edge from the noise around her. After Chris and Ashley's encounter with the Hunter, the group had come across a ledge that only she could climb.

Refusing to get anyone else killed, and wary of the conflict between the black creatures and the Wendigos, she sent the rest of them back to the relative safety of the lodge. Now alone in a mine filled with monsters, she was starting to regret that decision.

Eventually, she came across a gate that blocked her access. Grabbing a nearby shovel, she used the leverage to break the door open. Deciding that the shovel could come in handy, she brought it with her.

Heading towards a metal door that seemed to lead outside, she heard a commotion from the other side just before Mike burst through the entryway. She called out his name, but he wasn't paying attention, instead trying to shut the door again.

It immediately became clear why when a flaming Wendigo burst through the door, sending Mike to the ground. He brought his shotgun to bear, but a resounding click signified that it was empty, with the Wendigo now bearing down on him.

"HEY!"

The Wendigo turned at the sound of Sam's voice, just in time for the end of the shovel to bash it in the face. Shrieking, the Wendigo swiped its claws, but sheer blind luck caused it to miss her, and she retaliated with a swipe at its neck.

With no protection from its supernatural skin, the Wendigo was decapitated, falling back into the snow as the howling spirit emerged from the corpse. Wasting no time, Mike was back on his feet, closing the door and barricading it with his empty shotgun.

With the immediate danger gone, the two teens were left to catch their breath as the stress of physical exertion finally caught up with them. Sam was the first to recover her breath enough to speak.

"Hey."

"Hey." Mike wheezed. "What are you doing down here?"

"I came to warn you about the Wendigos."

"Yeah, I think I figured that out." Mike chuckled, causing Sam to do the same.

"Where to now?" She asked.

"We find Josh. Get the key and get out of here."

"Sounds like a plan."

...

As the two of them searched the mine for their missing friend, they came across something rather disturbing. First, it was a makeshift grave that had obviously held Beth's corpse. Secondly, Hannah had written a makeshift journal which was laying nearby.

It detailed the horror Hannah had felt being alone down here, and her desperation to survive. When it got to the last entries, the writing devolved into inelegant scrawling and it wasn't hard to figure out why.

Hannah had consumed her sister's corpse in desperation, trapped alone with no hope of rescue. She had become a Wendigo in the process, likely the same one that had been hunting them down all night.

Mike didn't want to believe it, but he realized it was true. If he had known that this would be the outcome of last year's prank, he would never have agreed to do it. Sam couldn't believe that this is what happened to her best friend, and yet the evidence was right in front of her.

At this point, Mike and Sam knew they'd have to find Josh, and find him quickly. Leaving the disturbed remains behind, the two of them rounded a corner... and entered into a tunnel from hell.

"What. The. Fuck?" Mike muttered in disgust.

The walls were covered in some sort of jet black organic resin, giving the impression that they were standing in the intestines of some creature. The temperature was much higher here than it had been anywhere else on the mountain.

"What the hell is this stuff?" Sam asked, not expecting an answer.

She could already guess what made it however: from what she had seen of the black creatures, this was almost certainly their doing. The how and why of it still eluded her, however. Regardless, this was the only path that they could concievably use.

Gingerly, they made their way through, aware that most of the background conflict noise had faded, replaced by the occasional screeching and hissing from farther in the tunnels. This whole place just felt wrong in a way she couldn't describe. Then they saw what was around the next corner.

"Oh my god."

"Jesus Christ!"

A Wendigo was pinned to the wall of the nest, restrained by strands of resin. His lower body was completely hidden by the wall of the hive, and it was clearly in tremendous pain. The supernatural cannibal's head rose as they walked towards it, but rather than a hostile growl, it emitted a low shrieking moan.

The two teens also noticed what appeared to be an egg-like structure right beside the Wendigo, with small cylindrical tubes feeding right into it. The realization hit Sam like a ton of bricks.

"Those things are trying to make more of themselves."

"Oh god." Mike fought back the urge to hurl.

Neither wanted to know how these things went through their life cycle, but suffice to say they may not have a choice. That was when a low hissing interrupted them. Spinning around, the two noticed one of the creatures emerging from an alcove, it's black exoskeleton blending seamlessly with the walls of the hive.

"Oh, shit! Run!"

The two of them raced down the hallway, looking back to see the creature following them. They stopped when they slammed into something hard, coming to an abrupt halt. They were surprised (and more than a little worried) to see that they had literally run into the Hunter.

With a growl of what appeared to be surprise tinged with annoyance, the Hunter pushed Mike and Sam aside as three targeting lasers emerged from its mask, forming a triangle on the alien. The cannon mounted on its shoulder fired, blasting a hole through its chest, causing its body to fall to the floor.

* * *

O'rika was getting a little irritated. These children didn't seem to understand that "Get out of here," meant (in human terms) "Get the fuck out of the goddamn mine!" He couldn't set a trap for the Serpents while simultaneously babysitting the fools who would wander into a xenomorph nest unarmed.

However, that was when he noticed what was on the wall: one of the Wendigos was being converted into an egg for the Serpents. Taking a quick scan of the event, he was relieved to find that the process was in its early stages, meaning this had only started recently.

However, this meant he was running out of time. If the current Serpents reproduced now, he would lose the ability to track them, since Weyland-Yutani hadn't implanted the trackers using nanotechnology, meaning new offspring would be untraceable.

When the xenomorphs had first been dropped here, their conflict with the Wendigos and low numbers had kept them from attempting to reproduce, but now, with the large influx of Serpents from the Weyland-Yutani outpost, they had more numbers on their side.

Regardless, the Yautja couldn't let this happen. O'rika unsheathed his wrist blades, jamming them into the Wendigo's skull before slashing through the still developing egg. Turning to observe his handiwork, the Predator nevertheless heard the humans speaking.

" _Let's get out of here._ " The boy whispered to the girl, assuming that the Predator couldn't hear.

With a low growl, O'rika spun around, targeting lasers aimed at the girl's hand as an obvious warning for them to hold still. Both humans froze and looked towards the Yautja, giving O'rika the chance to give them a thorough body scan through his mask.

The scan revealed that neither human had been impregnated with Serpent larvae, so they weren't walking time bombs. And since they were Serpent free, he didn't have to kill them. Activating the vocal mimicry function of his bio-mask, O'rika spoke in the voice of a previous opponent.

"Leave. This place. Now!"

* * *

" _Leave. This place. Now!_ "

With another low snarl, the Hunter turned and left down the opposite tunnel, leaving Mike and Sam to release the breath that neither had realized that they were holding. From the targeting lasers, Mike had assumed that the alien Hunter was going to kill them, but thankfully had left them free.

The fact that it spoke English though, was worrying unto itself. More disturbing was the recorded voice of a man none of them had ever known. His thoughts were interrupted by Sam tapping him on the shoulder.

"I think we should leave." As if on cue, a shrieking noise emerged from the direction the Hunter had gone, followed by the sound of it roaring.

"That sounds like a good idea!" He replied.

The two of them ran through the tunnel, leaving the sounds of conflict behind.

* * *

Matt crawled through a tunnel, landing on the stone floor near a wooden bench. He had been wandering through the mines for the past several hours, trying to find a way out, while also avoiding the clashes of monsters judging by the sounds.

Spotting a lamp nearby on the wooden desk, he pulled out his lighter and lit it up. Grabbing the lamp, he turned the light just in time to see a shovel fly towards his head. Instinctively raising his other arm, he blocked the wooden shovel, which broke on contact, allowing him to get a good look at-

"Jess?!"

It was indeed Jessica and even in the low light, it was clear that she had been through hell. Her face was battered and bruised, she walked with a noticeable limp, and she was dressed in an old mining coat and her undergarments.

"Matt?" She managed to whisper, clearly in pain.

"Oh, god. What the hell happened to you?"

Jessica's only reply was an anguished groan.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah." She replied. That was when something occured to him.

"Listen Jess," He said, thinking about how to phrase this. "There's some sort of... monster down here. It dragged me down here and killed Emily..."

His explanation halted at the sound of a loud shriek echoing from a nearby tunnel. The two of them looked toward the noise, with looks of terror appearing on their faces.

"We have to go, now!"

Matt grabbed Jessica and supported her as they ran through the tunnels, away from whatever was making that noise. As they ran, Matt chanced a look back and saw a creature, like the one that grabbed him, leaping on the walls in pursuit. Turning his attention to the task at hand, Matt and Jess kept running.

The two of them rounded a corner, only to find themselves standing in the intestines of some massive creature. The walls and ceiling were coated with some sort of organic substance, and the air was incredibly hot.

Unfortunately, Matt and Jess had no choice but to go forward, as the pale humanoid monster rounded the corner after them. Strangely, the creature seemed slightly hesitant to follow, but instinct prevailed and it kept up the pursuit.

The two of them hid a darkened outcropping, staying completely still as the monster appeared nearby. The creature seemed to be looking for them, but that no longer concerned Matt.

What concerned him was that the pattern on the wall behind the monster had started moving.

Jess saw this too, and barely suppressed a gasp, causing the monster to look directly at their hiding place. The humanoid being leaned towards the little outcropping, its hands coming to rest on the sides.

Its claws were inches from Jess' face, but she never noticed, and neither did Matt. They were too enraptured by the emergence of the demonic beast from the wall. It was huge, with a jet black exoskeleton, sharp tail and elongated head blending in seamlessly with the wall.

The beast's movements were utterly silent, with nary a whisper emerging from it. Drool salivated from the creature's mouth, as thin lips peeled back to reveal a row of sharp teeth.

The beast rose up behind the humanoid monster, letting out a low hiss as it did. The creature's face changed to one of terror, as it slowly turned its head to look at the beast behind it.

This movement blocked Matt and Jess' view of the beast's head, so all they saw was its mouth opening, before the humanoid monster's brains exploded from the back of its head, splattering over the two teens.

Jess started whimpering as the demon moved towards them, when suddenly a burst of fire lanced out from beside the creature, causing it to jump back in fright. A voice then emerged from out of sight:

"How do you like that?!"

Apparently, the beast wasn't fond of that, and leapt towards where the fire had come from. Seizing the opportunity, Matt grabbed Jess and ran, just as another burst of fire chased them, followed by an inhuman screeching.

Leaving the disgusting tunnels behind, they came across a fork in the road, as one tunnel veered off to the right, while the other continued on a straight path.

"Which way?" Matt muttered, more to himself than Jess.

Unfortunately, the choice was made for them when one of the humanoid creatures flew backwards out of the rightmost tunnel, immediately followed by a glob of yellowish-green liquid.

The liquid splattered on the monster's head, melting into its face. The monster's scream became distorted as the acid dripped into its vocal cords. The dying cannibal was followed by yet another of the black beasts crawling on the ceiling of the tunnel.

This demonic monster looked different from the previous one; it was lacking the dorsal fins of the previous beast, and it seemed to have a slightly reddish tint in its coloration. Regardless, when it's eyeless face turned to the two of them, it had the same drool emerging from its mouth.

The creature hissed, a sound which didn't fully drown out the loud whine emanating from further down the tunnel where the creature had emerged, swiftly followed by a bolt of blue light, which slammed into the creature and hurled it against the other monster's corpse.

Yellowish-green blood leaked out, melting the stone it touched. Carefully stepping around it, the two teens looked down the tunnel, spotting a massve humanoid being fighting the demonic creatures, tossing them aside like rag dolls.

Neither of them knew what it was, but the loud inhuman roar was enough to convince Matt and Jess that they probably didn't want to find out. The two of them continued down the tunnel.

...

Eventually, they found a passageway to the outside, overlooking a sheer drop off on a cliff. Quickly, Matt let Jess slide along the edge, swiftly followed by him. Immediately after, one of the pale humanoid monsters emerged on the cliffside, causing the two teenagers to freeze in place.

For a moment, Matt believed that the creature would see them, but it kept looking in the wrong direction before apparently deciding that they had vanished. The creature turned and went back into the mine, causing Matt and Jess to breath a sigh of relief.

"Now, we need to get out of here." He said as they made their way to safer ground.

Of course, in their haste to get out of the mine, neither Matt nor Jess had noticed the small triangular device positioned at the ceiling of the cave they had just exited, missing the trio of red lights indicating that it was armed.

They would notice soon enough, but fortunately for them, it would be from outside the blast radius...


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

O'rika ripped his wrist blades out of the Serpent's skull and left the creature's limp body behind. He would remove evidence of the creature's existence when he had the time, but for now, he needed to end this.

The Predator had already planted mines at most of the entrances, leaving only the large cavern near the cliff as the only exit left. A quick check of the holographic map on his wrist gauntlet gave the Yautja the directions he needed to go, as well as the location of the rest of the Serpents.

Most were still concentrated in the mines, but some were outside in the forest. O'rika grimaced. He had a way to draw them all in, but he needed to ensure that he was in the right place so that the Hive could hear his call.

Which meant that he had no time to waste. Reactivating his cloaking device, he made his way through the mines until he reached a tunnel that spilled out into the cavernous area, but as he approached the arena, the Yautja's bio-mask detected a human speaking.

"You're not real! Stop this, please!"

Snarling, O'rika reached the lip of the tunnel and found a young human male pacing around while talking to himself. The Predator growled in frustration. It seemed like the Wendigos had taken this one alive, though for what purpose, he didn't know, nor did he really care.

He realized that the children he had rescued earlier were probably here to rescue their friend, which meant the Yautja had to wait before detonating the explosives. It didn't help that this boy was clearly not in a good state of mind.

From what he'd seen before in human behavior, it was clear that the young man was suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations. A quick scan from his bio-mask revealed that his neural readings were extremely abnormal. This was only slightly below Marker-induced Dementia.

It was doubtful that the child would respond well to the Predator's presence, which meant that it was likely only a human could have a chance of getting through to him. As O'rika debated his options, he picked up a sound from nearby.

Activating thermal vision, the Predator could see two humans making their way through a nearby pool of water. It wouldn't be long before they stumbled across their mad friend. Crouching down, O'rika waited to see what would happen.

* * *

Sam waded through the waist-deep water, just a few steps behind Mike. Her nerves were on edge and not solely from the cold: staring into the pitch black liquid, she kept expecting either a Wendigo or one of the black creatures to leap out and grab them.

At this point, she didn't know which would be the least terrible option. Fortunately (and rather surprisingly), they made it through without incident. As she breathed a sigh of relief, she thought back to what she learned in the mines. About Hannah, Beth and the stupid prank that had caused all of this.

Some part of her mind was still focused enough to converse with Mike, but she was barely paying attention, her mind consumed with guilt. If she had found Hannah in time, maybe she could've stopped all of this. Maybe they would still be alive today.

And maybe Josh-

Her mind was pulled back to reality when Mike opened the wooden door: a flood of water poured out of the entryway, along with someone's head. The two of them fell to the ground, screaming in surprise as the ice cold water crashed over them.

"Are you alright?" Mike asked, as he rose to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam replied. "Let's just find Josh."

The two of them entered the room, in search of their friend. Neither one noticed the Wendigo watching them from the water behind them. Nor did they see it vanish beneath the surface with nary a ripple.

Meanwhile, Mike and Sam entered what seemed to be a storage shed for the Wendigo prey. One body was hanging from the ceiling on a pair of hooks, completely decapitated. Then they fully registered the smell.

"Oh god!" Sam looked away.

"I think I'm gonna hurl." Mike put his hand over his mouth.

As Sam took another look at the corpse, she noticed something peculiar. He was wearing what appeared to be a white lab coat, indented with a strange symbol that looked like a 'W' interposed over a 'Y'.

"Who the hell was this guy?" Sam managed to ask. Mike followed her gaze.

"Does it really matter?" Mike asked, swallowing the bile in his throat.

Sam wanted to argue that it did, but noise from nearby interrupted that thought. Looking through a crack in the wooden boards on the wall, she could see that Josh was standing right there.

"Josh!"

Josh didn't seem to hear her. He was staring blankly ahead, screaming and muttering to himself.

"You can't tell me what to do!" He cried, then seemed to calm down. "Ok, ok. I trust you. I trust you. I trust you."

Sam walked into the cavern, followed closely by Mike.

"Josh?" Mike said, walking up to the crazed young man.

"Buddy?" Still no response.

"What's the matter with him, Mike?" Sam asked.

"He's tripping or something." He slapped him. "Josh!"

"M... Mike?"

"Josh... Hey man-"

"Don't h-hit me, p-please-" Josh stuttered.

"You were deep in it, man." Mike replied, briefly looking at Sam for support. "Full mental jacket."

Josh turned to see Sam standing nearby as well.

"We didn't think we'd get you back." Sam replied before realizing something he needed to know.

"Josh... Hannah was down here for weeks, a month-"

"Sam."

"Mike-"

"Let's just get the fuck out of here." Mike interrupted.

"Okay." Sam took a deep breath. "Josh, do you have the key for the cable car?"

"What?" He looked confused before remembering. "Uh yeah, here."

He handed it to Sam, who took it. Then they began looking around.

"See that over there?" Sam pointed to the cliff. "That means there's a direct way out. C'mon."

"Yeah, I don't think squirrelly over here can climb that."

Sam shook her head in exasperation. "Okay, if you can help me up, I can go back and tell the others we're okay."

"Alright, I'll take Josh back the way we came, and meet up back at the lodge." Mike offered.

Sam agreed, and with Mike giving her a boost, she began climbing. The last thing she heard before the two boys moved out of hearing range was Mike's voice.

"Alright! Let's get going, you fucked up sonnovabitch."

Soon, Sam was alone with nothing but the sound of her own breathing and panting to comfort her as she climbed the near 30 foot incline. At the halfway point, she thought she could hear a faint clicking sound beneath her, but dismissed it as her imagination.

As she neared the top of the cavern, she never noticed the two small metal objects affix themselves to perpendicular walls of the cavern. Nor did she notice the red glowing lights appear as they armed themselves.

* * *

Mike led Josh back the way he came, already sick of Josh's rambling. He had no idea why he had agreed to escort the raving lunatic back to the lodge, especially after everything he had put them through tonight.

After a moment, Mike retracted some of the angry thoughts he had: it was clear now that Josh hadn't been responsible for Jessica's death, but rather the Wendigos. And there was no way in hell that he could hold Josh responsible for the presence of the aliens, or the Hunter for that matter.

Still, as he led Josh back towards the underground lake, his patience could only tolerate so much of his 'friend's' rambling.

"Oh, for god's sake, will you just be quiet?!" He snapped. "We have a bunch of flesh-eating monsters down here, and I'd rather not tell them where we are."

Weirdly, Josh was rather silent and when Mike turned back, he just nodded. Confounded at the rather abrupt change of attitude, Mike nevertheless waded back through the pitch black water. A moment later, he heard the low splashing that indicated Josh was following him.

He was two thirds of the way across when he felt something grab his leg. "What? Oh, fu-!"

Stumbling from the surprise, Mike fell into the water, getting a good glimpse at what had grabbed him. His heart threatened to leap out of his chest at the sight of the Wendigo, but strangely, the creature turned away and surfaced.

Rising out of the water himself, Mike was just in time to see the Wendigo looming over Josh, who screaming at it.

"You're not real!" He was shouting, as if that would make the creature vanish.

The massive Wendigo grabbed his head and lifted him into the air, causing Josh to scream. His next sentence caused Mike to feel like a hand was grabbing his heart.

"Hannah?!"

The Wendigo seemed to recognize him as well, as rather than crushing Josh's head, like Mike had expected, it started dragging him away. But before the Wendigo could take more than three steps, something else emerged from the depths of the water.

One of the black creatures emerged from the liquid darkness, with nary a ripple nor whisper as it rose to its full height. A low hissing emerged from the creature, causing the Wendigo/Hannah to freeze in her tracks.

Suddenly, the Wendigo spun around so fast that it looked like a blur, as it backhanded the creature into the nearby water wheel. Then the Wendigo leapt out of the water and ran further into the caves, with Josh's screams echoing throughout the cavern.

Quickly, Mike made his way out of the water and ran for the exit, drawing the Serpent's attention to him. As he reached the cave entrance, he rounded the corner and lost view of the creature behind him.

As a result, he never noticed the two metal projectiles that halted the Xenomorph in mid-leap. Nor did he see the eyes of the near-invisible silhouette that turned to look in the direction that Josh had been taken.

* * *

The Stranger made his own way through the mine, fighting past Wendigos and the black creatures as they fought each other. However, as of right now, the old hermit was seeing more of the latter than the former. This meant one of two things:

Either the black creatures had slaughtered more Wendigos, thus releasing their spirits into the mountain, or the Wendigos had left the mines and were heading up to the lodge. Neither option boded well for the Stranger's work.

At least the two children from earlier had made it outside the mine. Hopefully, they would get to safety before something worse found them. Through all this, though, the old man had gotten a sporadic glimpse of the Hunter inside the mine.

He wasn't sure what it was planning, but the being seemed to have a goal in mind. Whether it would be beneficial or not remained to be seen. The Stranger's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of sobbing mixed with mumbled babbling.

Someone else was still down here.

Picking up the pace, the Stranger rounded a corner and entered a cavern filled with stalagmites. And sitting in a corner of the cave was a human, rocking slightly as he alternated between crying and muttering.

With a start, the Stranger realized that he knew this one: it was the Washington boy, Josh. And then the Stranger noticed a severed arm lying on the ground in front of the boy.

Suddenly, Josh looked up, as if someone had flipped a switch. He stared straight at the arm, with a manic gleam in his eye that the Stranger knew all too well. Suddenly, Josh began crawling forward, desperate to reach the severed appendage of human flesh.

He was halfway to the arm when the Stranger intercepted him and kicked him in the face, causing Josh to fall back, groaning. With a grunt, the Stranger pulled Josh onto his feet, then slapped him in the face.

"Snap out of it, Josh!" He snapped. "Don't give in to them."

Josh blinked, and stared at the Stranger, as if just noticing him for the first time.

"Who... who are you?"

"I'm here to get you out of this hell." The Stranger replied, grabbing his arm. "Now come on, we're leaving."

As the Stranger led Josh away, neither of them noticed the distinctive mirage-like silhouette watching as they left the cave.

* * *

O'rika stood in the center of the cavern, just underneath the open cliff, patiently preparing himself for the coming battle. He had witnessed the human boy he had seen at the nest leaving the mine, having saved him from a Serpent as well.

He had also witnessed the old man rescuing the young boy with obvious mental problems, and briefly watched as they left the caves. After that, he had come back here, ready to set his trap into motion.

After five minutes, the Yautja knew he had given the humans enough time to leave the mines: he had to call the Serpents back now, before the infestation could spread any further.

Activating the vocal modulater on his bio-mask, the Predator keyed it to the highest frequency before unleashing a deafening sound through the tunnel and into the mountains. A sound the xenomorphs knew rather well.

The recorded call of a Xenomorph Queen echoed throughout the mountain. The Serpents would easily be able to tell it was fake, but the cry would agitate them enough to draw them in.

The Predators had recently been recording the vocalizations of captured Queens, in the event that they would need to draw a horde of Serpents to their location. The growing vocalizations of screeching and hissing indicated that it worked, and a quick check on the holographic map confirmed that theory. The xenomorphs were closing in.

And they were not happy.

To speed up the process, O'rika roared at the top of his lungs, the natural roar echoing through the caverns. Shortly thereafter, the Serpents began appearing in the tunnels, all of them hissing or screeching in anger.

Double-checking the holographic map, O'rika saw that all the tracking signatures were inside the mine. Deactivating the hologram, O'rika inputted the command sequence for the laser grid above, the red beams forming an impenetrable barrier.

Then he keyed the detonation sequence for the rest of his mines.

* * *

Sam was far enough from the cave she had just climbed out to barely register the hauntingly loud inhuman scream echo through the mountain, which was immediately followed by the screeching and hissing of the black creatures.

A moment later, the loud roar of the Hunter followed the alien vocalizations, causing Sam to pick up the pace. As she ran back to the lodge, she thought she heard dozens of low rumbles permeate the air.

...

Mike had just exited one of the caves, when the entrance exploded behind him. The shockwave sent him flying several feet before landing face first in the snow. Fortunately, he was uninjured from the blast, and as he turned to look at the results, he found the cave entrance buried in rock.

...

Matt and Jess were moving slowly as the former was forced to support the latter due to her injuries at the hands of the monster. Because of this, they were still in sight of the location they had exited when they heard the explosion.

Spinning his head around, Matt caught a glimpse of a flash of blue light before the tunnel entrance collapsed in a cloud of rock and dust. Then two of them stood there for a moment, just wondering what the hell had happened.

Then, Jess' groaning reminded Matt that they had more pressing concerns. The two of them resumed their journey to safety.

...

Back at the lodge, Chris, Ashley and Emily were waiting in the basement, when they heard a faint sound outside in the wilderness.

"What the hell was that?" Emily wondered as she looked up toward the noise.

A moment later, they could almost hear a low rumble coming from the direction of the mountain. A moment later, the sound passed, leaving the three of them with an unusual silence.

The silence was shattered a minute later, by the shrieking noises coming from nearby. And from the sound of it, they were getting closer.

"Oh, shit." Chris swore.

* * *

The Stranger and Josh kept running as the echoing vocalizations made their way through the caves. The old hermit didn't know what it meant, but it seemed the Hunter had something planned.

As Josh crossed the threshold of the entrance, the Stranger held back before yelling to the fleeing boy.

"Get back to the others! Hurry!"

Just outide the cave, Josh turned and opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was, the Stranger never knew, as an explosion of blue fire erupted at the entrance to the cave, sending the Stranger flying back and causing the rocks to collapse.

As the dust settled, he began coughing as he looked back towards the opening. The entrance was completely blocked off, and judging by the sounds from earlier, so was almost every other exit in the mine.

Checking his flamethrower for signs of damage, the Stanger was relieved to find that it was working properly. As he got up and began looking for a way out, he heard the screeching and hissing of the black creatures echoing off the caverns, followed by the roar of the Hunter.

Grimacing, the Stranger ran towards the source of the disturbance. He didn't know what would happen next, but he was certain that the next few minutes would be the deciding factor of whether the black creatures would survive or not.

The Stranger wanted to be there to ensure they wouldn't.

* * *

O'rika stood in the center of the cavern. All around him, the Serpents gathered. Some had looked back into the tunnels when he detonated the explosives, then turned back, seemingly glaring at him.

The screeching and hissing surrounded the Yautja, as he unsheathed his wrist blades, and activated the targeting lasers on his plasma caster. Most of the xenomorph hive was here, and once they were dealt with, this mission would be over.

Assuming the Predator survived this.

O'rika roared the natural war cry of his species, as if daring the Serpents to make the first move. He had also prepared the settings on his self-destruct device, which would detonate if the Yautja's life signs vanished. One way or another, one thing was certain:

The Serpents would not leave this place alive.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The first plasma bolt struck a Serpent head on, reversing its momentum mid-leap and sending it flying into a wall. O'rika ducked underneath the swipe of another xenomorph tail and responded by jamming his wrist blades through its head.

Two more Serpents fell to the Yautja's plasma, and as another reached melee range, the Predator pulled out his smart-disc and hurled it through that alien, while also decapitating another one right behind it.

That was when O'rika made a mistake.

He had neglected to check behind him before overcommitting himself to the attack. In response to his blind spot, a Serpent warrior leapt on his back and tried to impale him. The Predator was able to get the creature off, but not before it knocked the plasma caster off his shoulder.

With the Yautja's most powerful weapon disabled, he was now forced to rely on his bladed weaponry. Fortunately, the smart-disc returned to his hand just in time for O'rika to intercept another xenomorph lunge.

Standing in the middle of the dwindling Serpents, O'rika spared a brief glance toward his plasma caster. The damage wasn't too bad, and given time, the Predator could repair and reactivate it. Unfortunately, the xenomorphs weren't willing to give him any time.

Roaring, the Predator stood his ground just as the next Serpent lunged at him.

* * *

Back at the lodge, things had taken a turn for the worse. Sam and Mike had returned from their trip to the mines, arriving just in time to witness Chris, Ashley and Emily fleeing from the basement, with several Wendigos in hot pursuit.

Sam followed her friends, only to find them frozen in the main room. The largest Wendigo was hanging on the ceiling ornament, like some nightmarish primate. With that, Sam froze herself, heart pounding in her chest.

"Don't. Move." Mike said. "Don't move a muscle!"

If Sam wasn't so terrified, she would've replied in exasperation. Her terror only increased when she heard another Wendigo coming up from behind them. What happened next was unexpected. The smaller Wendigo leapt toward the larger one, who met the miner in mid-air.

The two got into a brief fight, with the larger clearly dominating. The Alpha slammed the miner into the fireplace, before snapping his neck. At that moment, Sam smelt the lingering odour of gasoline: the fight must have ruptured the pipes.

Surreptitiously turning to Mike, he nodded and turned towards an exposed light bulb. Sam nodded and looked at the Wendigo. They now had a plan to deal with these things. All they had to do was survive the next few moments.

A task that was easier said than done.

* * *

O'rika stood in the middle of the cavern, exhausted and bleeding. Fortunately, his wounds weren't too severe and were minor when compared to his opponents. Around him were over a dozen Serpent corpses, most in various states of dismemberment. One was even pinned to the wall by spears, looking like some twisted macabre painting.

One bisected Serpent was still alive, amazingly enough. With equal parts exasperation and exhaustion, O'rika stomped on the creature's head, his armored boot crushing its skull and brain.

Checking the hologram on his wrist computer, O'rika wanted to be sure that he gotten all the Serpents. Everything seemed in order, until he noticed one of the trackers outside the cavern, that was moving towards him.

A screeching roar echoed from a nearby tunnel causing the Yautja to turn to the source. Another Serpent emerged from the darkness, ready to kill the one who had murdered its brethren. This one was huge, standing larger than any of the previous drones or warriors that Predator had just killed.

The Serpent had a distinctive crest on its head, not like most other castes of xenomorphs, but something familiar nonetheless. Add in the noticeable hump on its back, slightly increased musculature and shortened but thicker dorsal tubes, and it was obvious what this was: a krogan xenomorph.

"Cjit." O'rika cursed. An average krogan was capable of overpowering an average Predator in a contest of pure strength. A Serpent-krogan hybrid would only have additional strength added as well.

Add that onto the Predator's currently weakened state, plus the fact that his plasma caster was unavailable, and O'rika was looking at a difficult challenge. Under normal circumstances, the Yautja would've deliberately given himself such a handicap to increase his honor.

These were not normal circumstances.

Roaring, the Beserker lunged at the Predator, who leapt out of the way and pulled out his spear gun. A trio of the projectiles impacted the larger alien, but barely penetrated the skin.

The Beserker barely noticed, having inherited the blood rage that was so common in its host species. The spears were stuck fast, keeping any meaningful regeneration from happening, but it wouldn't matter much.

A swipe from the massive tail sent the Predator's weapon clattering to the ground. The Yautja pulled out his smart-disc and hurled it, but another swipe from the tail caused the disc to be embedded in the cavern wall.

The Beserker retaliated by slamming the Yautja into the wall, pinning him in place. It followed up with a headbutt, stunning the Predator and creating a small but noticeable indentation in the bio-mask's forehead.

Dazed, O'rika could offer up little resistance as the Beserker's mouth opened, revealing the inner jaw within. Suddenly, a burst of fire impacted the krogan xenomorph, causing it to release its grip on the Yautja.

" **How do you like that, you ugly son of a bitch?!** "

Groaning, O'rika landed on the floor, struggling to push himself off the ground. Through hazy vision, the Predator could see the old man fighting off the Beserker with his flamethrower.

It was a valiant effort, but nothing short of a military grade flamethrower could reliably keep a krogan on fire. A krogan-born Serpent even more so. Though the Beserker had one of its hands in front of its head to cover the flames, it stopped backing up and leered at the human.

Summoning all the energy he had left, O'rika got back on his feet.

* * *

When the Stranger entered the cavern, he had initially come across a sight he had hoped to see: Most of the black creatures were lying dead on the floor, some in several pieces. Then he saw a sight he hadn't expected;

The Hunter was pinned against the cavern wall by a massive black beast, much larger and more monstrous than any he had seen previously. The creature held the armored Hunter in a deadlock and moved its mouth closer to its mask.

With a feeling of dread, the Stranger realized that the black monster was going to kill the Hunter. Rushing forward and unleashing fire on the creature seemed like a good idea, as previous encounters had shown the black creatures feared fire.

Initially, that had seemed to work, as the monster retreated with one hand covering its face. But now, it stopped backing up, and was walking through the flames as if it was a light shower.

Without warning, the beast picked up the pace, rushing forward and backhanding the Stranger, sending him flying back onto the ground. As the black monster loomed over him, the old man could do nothing but prepare for the end.

A familiar loud growl drew the attention of man and monster, just as the Hunter leapt onto the beast's back, stabbing the being's hump with its wrist blades and a strange ornate dagger.

The creature roared in pain, struggling to reach the opponent that was stabbing it in the back. Welcoming the distraction, the Stranger blasted fire at the beast's body, causing even more intense howling.

In retaliation, the monster's tail swiped at the old hermit, sending him flying and knocking the flamethrower tank off his back. Then, the creature rammed itself into a stalagmite, staggering the Hunter on its back.

Growling in pain, the Hunter fell off, hitting the ground on its back. The monster turned to look at the armored being, before raising its speared tail for the killing blow. Thinking quickly, the Stranger pulled out his sidearm, which unfortunately had one bullet left.

Spotting the flamethrower tank near the beast, the Stranger fired, causing a massive blast of flame to envelop the the two otherworldly life forms. The explosion also sent him flying back, landing near the wall.

Getting his bearings, the Stranger groaned and sat up, watching the roaring flames as they started dying down. He hadn't meant to catch the Hunter in that explosion, but there had been little choice. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw something stirring in the smoke.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

The beast rose, seemingly wreathed in flames. The smoke and the color gave the creature the appearance of a demon rising from the depths of hell. The monster's eyeless face turned to him, and it let out a murderous roar.

Then without warning, several small projectiles lodged themselves into the back of the beast, causing it to screech in pain in a manner akin to its brethren, but with a much deeper voice. With a loud howl, the Hunter emerged from the smoke as well, leaping onto the creature's back.

This time, the armored Hunter stabbed its wrist blade and dagger into the underside of the creature's mouth, the blast and subsequent fire having weakened the monster's skin. With a screeching roar that was abruptly halted, it collapsed to the ground, acid blood leaking out of its wounds.

Catching his breath, the Stranger watched as the Hunter staggered over the beast's corpse, with a small area of its shoulder cloth in flames. If it was bothered by that, it gave no sign. Instead, the mask of the Hunter turned to the Stranger, almost as if it was questioning what to do with him.

* * *

O'rika looked over the old human, sizing him up. The Yautja couldn't deny that he was impressed: most human civilians wouldn't have even been able to kill a lone Serpent drone, let alone be courageous enough to engage a krogan-born xenomorph.

Figuring that the hermit deserved to live, the Yautja decided to leave him be, and began gathering up the weapons that had been discarded during the fight. Once that was done, he repaired his plasma caster and deactivated the two laser mines above, retrieving those as well.

It was at that point that O'rika felt the night's events catch up to him, and he leaned against the wall, as the Stranger watched in curiousity with a touch of concern. Patting the fire on his shoulder out, then pulling out his medi-comp, the Predator set to work patching his wounds, under the curious eyes of the old man.

Once they were treated, O'rika was just willing to sit back for a moment and rest, but the sound of a distant explosion, followed by the noise of approaching helicopters put that thought to bed. The Predator turned to the Stranger when he heard the old human laughing.

"Of course," The old man laughed bitterly. "They show up too late to actually accomplish anything."

O'rika inwardly sighed and rose to his feet. He knew that the destruction of the mine entrances would buy him some time, but it wouldn't be long before the authorities could get through. He needed to dispose of the Serpent bodies, and quickly.

Walking over to the Beserker corpse, the Predator grunted as he lifted the creature's body over his shoulders and began walking to the nearby underground pool. With a heave, the Yautja hurled the body into the water, elicting a noisy splash as it entered.

Turning back, O'rika was surprised to see the old man dragging a mostly intact xenomorph corpse by the tail, sweating with the obvious physical exertion. The Predator tilted his head to the side, an action which didn't go unnoticed by the Stranger.

"Where do you want it?" He asked, as if this was a normal occurence.

The Predator pointed to the water, surprised at the Stranger's intuition and willingness to help. The old man kept moving the corpses into the water, while O'rika went back into the tunnels to retrieve the few Serpent corpses he hadn't had time to destroy.

While there, he made a quick stop by the half-constructed egg that he had sliced open, and insured that no trace of its evidence existed. Briefly, the Yautja considered destroying the Hive resin in the tunnels, but decided against it.

Partially because it would take too long to destroy it, but also because there was really no reason to: While the substance was stronger than most would expect, on its own, the Serpent resin really wasn't anything really spectacular.

Without the Serpents inhabiting the Hive, the structure itself would be a scientific curiousity to this world, but would ultimately reveal very little gamebreaking data. Besides, the surviving Wendigos would probably be more than happy to remove the resin from their habitat.

As he brought the Serpent corpses back to the main cavern, the Yautja couldn't help but wonder what had happened on the surface while he'd been fighting the xenomorphs...

* * *

It was over. They had all made it out of the lodge before Sam had flipped the light switch. The explosion had incinerated all the Wendigos inside, leaving nothing but a burning lodge behind.

As the five of them watched the building go up in smoke, another sound drew their attention: the whirring of helicopter blades drew their eyes up to the dawn of the morning light and the two choppers coming to the rescue.

...

Once onboard, the group was too exhausted to do much else other than sit quietly. Sam sat near the door, while Mike and Emily sat close to one another. Ashley was half-asleep with her head on Chris's lap when one of the pilots called out to them.

"Hey, we've picked up your three friends, uh, Matt, Jessica and Josh."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"They're alive?"

The five of them had different reactions upon hearing this news, but all them felt elation (and some confusion) on learning their friends were alive. Considering the horrors that had been lurking on the mountain all night, it was miraculous that all eight of them had made it out alive.

As the helicopter made its way to the nearest town, one of the medics came over to Sam.

"What happened out there?" He asked, curiousity and concern tinging his voice.

Sam chuckled without any trace of humor, as she thought about what she had seen tonight. Between Josh's prank, the Wendigos, the Flamethrower guy, the black creatures and the Hunter, she could barely believe what happened herself, and she had been through it.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

* * *

The Stranger had no idea what compelled him to help the Hunter with... whatever the hell it was doing. For all he knew, the 7 foot, armored being was going to kill him once it was done with its task.

And yet, the old man had a feeling that that wasn't the case. The Hunter had several oppurtunities to kill him all night, but had refrained from doing so. Besides, the sooner the Hunter's job was done, the sooner the Stranger could get out of the mine.

Focusing on the task at hand, the old hermit finished dumping the body parts of the black creatures into the pool, just as the Hunter returned with the two more corpses being dragged behind it. With gusto, it hurled the bodies into the water, joining the rest of their dead brethren in the pool.

The Hunter then walked over to the Stranger, and oddly enough, gently guided the old man away away from the pool edge. Once he was standing a foot away, the Hunter walked closer to the water, seemingly cautious about putting its feet in the water.

"Now what?" The Stranger asked rhetorically, not actually expecting an answer (even if he could understand it).

True to his prediction, the Hunter said nothing, instead it pulled out a vial filled with blue liquid. Before the Stranger could even ask about what was in the vial, the Hunter emptied the contents into the water.

The water started bubbling, as if a massive burner had been lit underneath it. Before the Stranger's shocked eyes, the water and the black creatures slowly dissolved until there was nothing left but a dried up underground lake and steam.

The Hunter looked over its handiwork for a moment, before raising its left wrist and tapping a few buttons on its gauntlet. Then it abruptly turned and made its way towards one of the nearby tunnels.

"And how exactly do you plan to get out of here?" The Stranger called out.

The Hunter turned its head, seemingly confused by the question. Then, in a surprisingly human gesture, it beckoned with a clawed hand for the old hermit to follow, before turning back to where it was going.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." The Stranger muttered as he followed the Hunter's path.

Soon, the two unlikely companions came to one of the blocked entrances, as demonstrated by the barricade of rocks. Three lasers emerged from the mask, and a bolt of of pale blue light emerged from its shoulder, slamming into the barricade.

The rocks exploded outward in a shower of debris. As the dust settled, the Hunter stepped out into the sunlight, followed closely by the Stranger. They came to a clearing not far from where they had exited, when suddenly, a large silver object appeared in front of them.

The Stranger slightly flinched in surprise and confusion, but the Hunter didn't react in the slightest. He had obviously been expecting it. Walking up to its vessel, for that was the only thing this could be, the armored being pressed a few keys on its gauntlet, which caused the front section to open.

"You're leaving?" The old hermit asked, in a tone with nothing more than curiousity.

The Hunter turned its head and nodded, then moved back to its ship. Suddenly, it stiffened, almost as if it had remembered something it had forgotten. Turning to the Stranger, the armored being reached its hands towards its face, to the old man's confusion.

The Hunter pulled out a small wire tube from the side of its mask, causing some sort of gas to flow out. Then with a deliberate slowness, it pulled the mask off, placing it on top of the small ship's hull.

The old hermit couldn't stop staring. The Hunter's face... it was hideous. It looked like some sort of demonic crab had affixed itself to the dreadlocked head. Four mandibles surrounded a small mouth with several sharp teeth. Beady eyes stared out from somewhat hollowed eye sockets.

Faced with this, the Stranger could only think of one appropriate thing to say.

"You're one ugly moth-"

" _Mother fucker?_ "

The Stranger froze as he watched as the Hunter spoke. It was one of the most disgusting things he had ever seen, and it sounded like it was speaking with a mouthful of gravel. But there was no denying that it just spoke in English.

Oddly enough, the Hunter didn't seem to take offense at the implied insult. If anything, it seemed almost amused at being called an 'ugly mother fucker.' Like it had heard that before.

With an almost exaggerated slowness, the Hunter pulled a sheath from its hip, and then pulled out the ornate dagger the Stranger had seen it use earlier. For an instant, the old man thought that it was going to attack, but its next move stunned the hermit.

The Hunter resheathed the blade, and casually tossed the weapon in its holder to the Stranger, who caught the ceremonial weapon on reflex. Pulling it out of its sheath, the Stranger was surprised that the blade was lighter than it looked, and incredibly sharp as well.

" _Keep it._ "

The Stranger looked up from his examination to see the Hunter putting its mask back on before leaping into the ship's cockpit. With a final nod to the human, the pilot station sealed up and the engines roared to life.

The small vessel lifted off the ground before rocketing into the air, flying past the sun. Soon, the Stranger couldn't see any sign of the ship at all. With a sigh, the old man made his way back to the Sanitorium.

It had been a long night.


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"I heard Jess in the mine." Ashley said, her face half-buried in her hands. "She was calling for help. Then the next thing I know, one of those... things came out of the ceiling and attacked me."

"What things?"

"The black creatures." Ashley replied hesitantly. "Those... aliens." She sighed. "I'd be dead if it wasn't for the Hunter."

...

"The old man..." Chris murmered. "I-I really don't know how to describe him-"

"You said that you thought he was stalking you. Did anyone else in your group think that?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Is it possible that one of them killed him?"

"What? No!" Chris vehemently denied. "You don't understand-!"

"If he attacked you-"

"He saved us." Chris replied. "And I watched him die. One of those... aliens dragged him off."

"... Aliens?"

"Look, I'm not crazy, ok!" Chris snapped. "Th-those things... they weren't natural. And the Hunter... it definitely wasn't human."

...

"I had to do something." Mike protested. "He was out of his mind!" He hesitated, then sighed. "... And yes. I thought he was the one who attacked Jess."

"Do you still think that?"

"Well, not anymore." Mike responded. "It was the Wendigo that grabbed her."

"The what?"

"The monster in the mine." Mike said. "It had to be."

"And this monster... was at one of these 'black creatures?'"

"... Wait-"

"Or was it this 'Hunter?'"

"Neither, I-" Mike sighed and started again. "Look. The black creatures and the Hunter weren't human..."

"You said you thought Chris was insane when he called them aliens."

"I did!" Mike's voice grew low. "... Until I saw them myself."

...

"Your friend Ashley said she heard you calling for help."

"I didn't..." Jess looked up, trying to focus. "It wasn't me..."

"Down in the mines... that wasn't you?"

"... No." Jess murmered. "No..."

"What do you remember?"

"Mike..."

"What about him?"

"He came for me." Jess whispered, with a small smile.

...

"I tried to something." Matt said. "I tried to save her!" He looked down at the table. "But I wasn't good enough."

"What did you see down in the mine?"

"... Something... something inhuman." Matt sighed. "Some sort of monsters attacked us."

"So this was after you found Jess?"

"Yeah, it was. And the weird thing is... it-it looked like they were killing each other."

...

"It could turn invisible!" Emily cried. "Whatever that freak was, I hope it's gone."

"So you don't know what this 'Hunter' was doing?"

"It came after me!" Emily responded angrily. "Who knows what it would've done if it found me."

There was a pause before she spoke again.

"How is Matt? Did-did he mention me? I'm his girlfriend... though I guess I've been a bit of a bitch to him. I'm probably not his favourite person at the moment... I just hope he knows how much he means to me."

...

"Josh? Josh!"

"Uh... wha-?" Josh looked up, halting his rambling for a moment.

"Your friends said that you invited them up to scare them. Did your prank get out of control?"

"I-I-I don't-I don't-" Josh clutched his head. "I-I can't remember."

"What happened down in the mine, Josh?"

"Hannah, then the evil bug," Josh muttered. "the old guy... then a loud boom..."

...

"I thought we were close." Sam whispered. "After what happened, he came over a lot..." She snorted. "I thought we had a connection."

"You know, some people have difficulty coping with traumatic events..."

"I'm fine." Sam forcefully replied.

"If you want to talk about it-"

"I said I'm fine!" Sam snapped.

"Alright... what did you see in the mine? Something that old man set up?"

Sam laughed without a trace of humor. "No. You need to listen to me. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You will. They're down there. And they aren't human."

"The Wendigos? The black creatures? Or the Hunter?"

"All of the above." Sam smiled without a trace of joy. "I've seen the things down there. And I'd give anything to unsee it."

* * *

Two park rangers walked through the mine tunnels, part of the large search effort to uncover the events surrounding the Washington Lodge incident. Progress had been slow, since most of the entrances into the mine had collapsed, seemingly from the use of explosives.

"What do you think we'll find down here?"

"No idea. But the police say there's something in the mine."

"You really believe those kids?" The first one asked skeptically. "That there are some sort of monsters down here?"

"A lot of people have vanished on the mountain." His partner replied. "Something had to have happened to them."

That was when they turned the corner and entered into the intestines of... something.

"Holy shit!"

The walls and ceiling were coated in some sort of black resin. The air was incredibly hot, and some sort of distant sound could be heard in the background.

"We should call this in."

Just as his partner reached for his radio, they both heard something shrieking behind them. Turning, they had time to see a pale humanoid figure hanging off the side of the wall before the monster lunged at them.

* * *

The Stranger sighed as the screams echoed through the tunnels. At this point, it was now impossible to keep the Wendigos contained without anyone else knowing about it. Still, he would follow in his grandfather's footsteps, and ensure the Wendigos were contained.

No matter the cost.

Readying his new flamethrower, and keeping his rather useful new knife in its sheath, the old man rushed towards the sound of the Wendigo, rounding the corner just in time to see one chewing on the head of a park ranger.

A burst of fire sent the Wendigo running, past the webbing that was once the part of the Hive for the black creatures. Shrieking, the cannibal retreated, while the sounds of the other police officers got louder.

Soon, more shrieking entered the mine, followed by panicked gunshots. It seemed that the police had finally found the Wendigos after failing to even notice them last year. To them, it was probably their worst nightmare. The Stranger sighed once again.

To him, it was just another day at work.

* * *

"Report."

"Total loss. The outpost was purged, along with all the research data within."

"Damn. Weyland's gonna be pissed. What about the xenomorphs?"

"We haven't recovered any specimens, alive or dead. Local chatter indicates they may have found some of the Hive, but nothing of the xenomorphs themselves."

"Well that's a relief. This whole operation's already gone completely to hell, no point in making it worse. And what of our technology?"

"We've recovered pieces of a sidearm and a communication device from the peak of the mountain. Everything else was destroyed with the outpost. The only thing the locals have found is the body of Dr. Luke Brian. Shall we dispatch a retrieval mission for it?"

"Did he have anything on him that could be traced back to us?"

"Negative."

"Then don't bother. We've already caused enough of a stir out here as is. Get back to the ship, we're leaving."

"Yes sir."

* * *

The small freighter/dropship broke its orbit and headed toward deep space. Seconds later, a tear in reality opened and the vessel entered, leaving space quiet and still once more.

That stillness disappeared as a small silver one man ship appeared out of nowhere, following the same vector as the ship that just left. Once the occupant had determined their heading, a second portal opened and the ship shot through, before the portal vanished.

Finally, silence reigned.

* * *

**Wow. It's finally finished. And it occurs to me that this is the first actual story I've completed on this site... It feels good. Anyway, I feel like I should address some aspects of AVP: Until Dawn, so everyone can understand my thought processes as I was writing this.**

**I'm guessing a lot of people are wondering why I had all the major characters survive the events on the mountain. Honestly, I was considering having the xenomorphs pose more of an immediate threat to them, but then again, if I did, they would've just rushed the lodge immediately and slaughter everyone there within the first few minutes. Not much of a story there.**

**Besides, I kinda liked the characters in Until Dawn; they were relatively decent people who made stupid decisions when they were younger. Be honest, who hasn't done that before? Now, I know that can depend on the playthrough, but I felt that they deserved to have a chance to live past this night. Besides, the mental trauma from encountering the Wendigos, the Aliens, and a Predator (all in one night) is more than punishment enough for any possible wrongs they may have done.**

**I noticed that quite a few people were glad that the Stranger wasn't killed off like he was in the game. I'm glad I could do so; like everyone else, I was disappointed at how quickly he was taken down, especially for someone who had fought the Wendigos for so long. Now, you could argue that the Stranger was normally used to looking out for himself, so having to protect Chris as well might have thrown him off. In a way, that does make sense. Regardless, I thought it was much better for him to survive the night, especially since he was the only character who could earn respect from the Predator.**

**Speaking of which, I've barely seen any stories on this site that feature a Predator as a protagonist. Personally, I like the species, which is why I've made the Predators a lot less murder happy in the multiverse of my stories. And it's no exception here, as seen by the fact that every teen saw him at one point, and lived to tell the tale. Even if he was on a hunt for the strongest prey, there really was no point in having him murder the group.**

**Why?**

**Because they pose no threat to him. These aren't highly skilled warriors, they're a bunch of scared kids way out of their element. Ironically, the only reason the entire group survived was because of the Predator.**

**Now, there were many people wondering whether or not I was going to have a chestbursting scene in this story. Honestly, it was really, _really_ tempting, but I decided not to. Mainly because of the scenario itself: The xenomorphs were in almost constant conflict with the larger number of Wendigos for a week, and by the time the conflict had settled down enough that they could start eggmorphing, they had a much bigger problem in the form of the Predator. Besides, as I mentioned earlier, the group would already suffer enough trauma from the conflict alone, no need to add witnessing a chestburster on top of that.**

**I'd like to thank everyone who faved, followed and reviewed this story. Everyone of you just made writing this worthwhile. If anyone has any questions they'd like to ask, please don't hesitate to leave a review or send me a PM, and I'll answer as best as I can.**

**This is hunter 139, signing off.**


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